


To Boldly Steal (what no one has stolen before)

by mitsukyu



Category: Super Junior, Super Junior-M
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Enemies to Lovers, Explosions, M/M, Space Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-06
Updated: 2016-01-06
Packaged: 2018-05-12 06:30:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5656024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mitsukyu/pseuds/mitsukyu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I warned you, didn't I?" Kyuhyun interrupted solemnly. Zhou Mi stared.</p><p>"What?"</p><p>"It's dangerous to go after CHI-9."</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Boldly Steal (what no one has stolen before)

**Author's Note:**

> All I know about space travel is from watching Star Trek as a child. Apologies to science.
> 
> written for mibutt for qmidayeveryday 2014 (hi superlate repost)

"Here you go."

"Thanks."

The tiny bar, tucked away in one of the backstreets of New Beijing was dimly lit, the air hot with the press of people. Ryeowook hadn't been in this area before, but Henry had seemed to know where he was going, so he'd let himself be dragged along. They got a corner table behind a glass pillar, giving them enough space to breathe and enough quiet to talk. 

"D'you think there's ever been an Old Beijing?" he asked idly, sipping his drink. Henry raised his eyebrows and Ryeowook nodded to a tourism advert on one of the flickering walls, emphasizing all that was new and exciting in New Beijing. Henry laughed and scratched his head.

"I suppose, yeah. Not around here, though. I think I read something about it at the city museum? It was on a school trip, so I can't remember that much. But it was a pretty big place on Earth way back when, before the whole planet went kaboom." 

Ryeowook hummed thoughtfully.

"You've lived here your whole life then?"

"Yeah. It's boring as hell, I can tell you that. But I work on the ships now! I finally get to go places. Did you want another one?"

There was a lot of alcohol involved in their slow journey through New Beijing's better bars. Ryeowook was okay with that because it was _quality_ alcohol, the genuine, old fashioned stuff, of the kind that would make Kyuhyun look a little lovestruck and Kyuhyun's bank account weep only moments after. 

Ryeowook's mental ranking of the really good wines was entirely based on how long his best friend could wax poetically about a particular vintage. 

He mentioned this to Henry, who laughed. 

"That's the same guy you mentioned last time, right? When we bumped into each other at the university. Wasn't he the one that made you so late? He sounds like a character."

Ryeowook thought bumping into each other was too innocent a word for the head on collission that had happened. It had left them both sprawling on the floor.

"Yes. He's a complete idiot," Ryeowook answered, rolling his eyes. He was convinced all his friends were. Kyuhyun at least wasn't as bad as Donghae, but that didn't say much. 

"I know the feeling," Henry said. "My friends are _mental._ " 

Ryeowook smiled as Henry told him about his friends and their adventures with (and in) women's clothing, gesturing excitedly as he spoke. He thought Henry was a bit of an idiot too, but that was okay. It was a nice kind of idiot, cheerfulness that made him smile as he gently melted in a puddle of relaxed limbs in his seat.

"What about your friend? Kyuhyun, was it?" Henry asked when he'd run out of steam. Ryeowook shrugged. 

"I don't think he has a fetish for wearing dresses..."

"Sequined ones," Henry interupted solemnly. 

"Sequined dresses," Ryeowook corrected dutifully. "Or any other, I should think? Though he might, for all I know. He's pretty intelligent, you know? When you hook him up to a computer. It's such a shame he's useless out in the real world." 

"Locked up in his room all the time? Have to shove food under his door?" Henry asked sympathetically. It was a familiar enough story on all the planets these days. But Ryeowook shook his head.

"I wish," he said, draining his glass. "Life would be a lot simpler if I just had to keep him fed. The problem is no one's ever _told_ him his survival chances off the 'net are zero. I mean, _I_ have, I tell him every day. But he never listens to anything I say. And he's played too many old adventure holos. So he goes off, you know. On the most ridiculous adventures, and half of the time I don't even know - oh. Yes please."

He let Henry refill his glass and took another sip. Henry leaned forward, eyes shining in the bar's half light.

"Adventures?"

 

xxx

 

Zhou Mi sighed. They had been waiting inside the cargo hold, just before their ship had been scheduled to depart for space. The information Henry had come back with had been... interesting. And accurate, as it turned out.

"Well, his friend was right. Useless," he told Henry, looking their new prisoner up and down. The man scowled at him. 

Zhou Mi had expected him to look... Possibly not more intimidating than he did, after what the roommate had told Henry. Although Zhou Mi suspected that anyone who was anyone in this business knew Cho Kyuhyun better than his naive roommate had. No, he corrected himself. Not know. After all, Zhou Mi hadn't even known what the man looked like before now. Nor where he stayed, how exactly he operated. However, of his reputation and the results of his work, Zhou Mi could write a book. 

He'd expected him to look less cute, he settled on. Less like a puppy he wanted to pet.

He banished that thought straight away for being absolutely ludicrous.

"I don't exactly mind," said Kangin. He cuffed Kyuhyun's hands behind his back. Old fashioned ones, as Zhou Mi had specified. There was something to be said for simplicity. Let's see him get out of _those_. "I wish everything on this blasted space crate was this easy, honestly."

Kyuhyun was still glaring balefully at them but didn't otherwise struggle. Kangin put a hand on his shoulder as he led him away, out of the cargo hold and to whatever temporary cell they could set up. They'd had an official one once, years ago, until Heechul had turned it into a second bathroom. But a portable forcefield was easy enough to install.

"Honestly? We were very lucky," Zhou Mi told Henry when they were out of earshot. "If we hadn't known? If he'd gotten in the ship's computers... Well. There's no word for what we'd have been."

"Screwed's a good one," Henry suggested as they started on their way to the control room. Zhou Mi grunted.

"Would we even be around to realize how screwed we were, I wonder."

"Oh come on, Mi. He's just a hacker! Like a kid in a candy store when he sees a touchpad and a big, blinking screen. He probably wouldn't even have realized we were here, to be honest."

"He broke into our ship," Zhou Mi maintained stubbornly.

"And we were waiting at the door. _Relax_ , Zhou Mi. Stress doesn't suit you. Neither does rage, by the way. I was expecting it from Heechul," he said, stopping just outside the thick doors to the control room. "Not so much from you." 

"No?" 

"I saw you crying at pictures of kittens yesterday." 

Zhou Mi sniffed. "Did the alcohol affect your brain? Kittens aren't out to destroy us."

"And he is? He mostly seems like a bewildered kid who's maybe a bit intense about computers. There's probably someone behind this who..."

"No," Zhou Mi said shortly, turning to the scanner at the side of the doors. He remained silent until they were through.

"Forget the innocent college kid spiel his friend gave you. He didn't have a clue," he said, dropping into his chair. 

Henry turned questioning eyes to their captain behind his back. Heechul grinned.

"Mimi here is just pissed because Cho Kyuhyun outsmarted him once. It cost him a deal," he stage whispered. Zhou Mi twisted around to glare at him.

"He's a criminal."

"You realize that technically? We? Aren't really obeying a lot of laws. Whichever planet's legal system you pick," he said with a shrug.

"We obey the important ones. And you've changed your tune from yesterday."

"That's because we have him!" Heechul crowed, taking Henry's arms and pulling him into a flailing celebratory dance, twirling around in excitement. 

"Time to celebrate! Do you all realize how much money we're going to get?!"

Zhou Mi rolled his eyes and turned back to his console to hide his smile at his hyung's antics. 

"I think it's time we get out of here, yes?"

"Yes," Heechul said, sobering and letting go of Henry who lost his balance and landed on the floor with a small 'ouch'. 

"Head to the Mu'Ho system, we're meeting Sungmin there and we should be able to get some leads on who's interested in our little hacker. Oh, please let it be rich people," he added fervently.

 

xxx

 

"The food here is terrible," Kyuhyun greeted him when Zhou Mi went to see him later that day, after his shift had ended and Fei had taken over the helm. 

He wasn't sure why he was visiting the brat. Curiosity, perhaps.

"You should have broken into a ship with a better cook."

"I suppose. When are you going to let me go?" Kyuhyun asked, head lolling back against the wall. 

"We're not." 

That got Kyuhyun's attention. He shot up and rushed forward, only narrowly avoiding colliding with the force field. Zhou Mi took a reflexive step back.

"What do you mean, you're not?" Kyuhyun demanded. "You can't keep me here."

"You came here voluntarily. And uninvited," Zhou Mi said calmly. "We can do whatever the hell we like. You're staying here until we get to the Mu'Ho system. We'll hand you over to the proper authorities there."

Kyuhyun frowned.

Attempts had been made in the past, but there was still little to no law enforcement in the cluster of planets and antiquated space stations that made up the Mu'Ho system. It was the whole point of the place.

"Mu'Ho? What proper autho- ah. I see. You must think you're very funny." 

Kyuhyun turned his back on Zhou Mi and the force field, sliding down against the wall to where he'd been sitting moments ago.

"Why did you do it?" Zhou Mi asked quietly when the other continued to ignore him. Kyuhyun snorted.

"Because they paid me to, genius."

"Who did? What did they want?" he asked. 

It didn't make sense, Zhou Mi thought. Their ship was relatively small and it had been a while since they'd carried anything important, anything really worth stealing in the face of Kangin and his extensive collection of defensive weaponry. He'd wondered whether Kyuhyun had picked them at random, for sport, but even the naive roommate had been able to tell Henry the name of the ship Kyuhyun was headed to for his latest adventure - the _Anna_ \- though he seemed to have believed Kyuhyun's adventures were at least legal.

Kyuhyun remained silent until Zhou Mi left.

 

xxx

 

"You should have smacked him around a bit," Kangin advised after hearing Zhou Mi's account of his visit to Kyuhyun. 

Zhou Mi picked at his food. He'd met Henry and Kangin in the mess hall for an early lunch but he couldn't work up an appetite. 

"I don't know," Zhou Mi said doubtfully. "I'm not very good at hitting people."

"Cries at kittens," Henry whispered loudly at Kangin from behind his hand. Kangin grinned. 

"Shut up."

"I wasn't going to say anything," Kangin claimed, a picture of wide eyed innocence. It was terribly unconvincing. 

"Anyway," Zhou Mi said. "I don't understand? He could've killed the ship, yes, but for what? We don't have anything particularly valuable in the data archive at the moment." 

"Maybe he wasn't after something? He might have just been here to kill the ship."

"But why? What's there to gain from that?"

Kangin shifted around uncomfortably.

"Revenge?" he hazarded. "Not everyone is as fond of our charming captain as we are." 

"I suppose..." Zhou Mi trailed off. He was unconvinced but he couldn't think of a better motive either.

"In happier news," Henry interrupted, when he'd finished shoveling his food in his mouth. "I spoke to Sungmin this morning. He's got something interesting to share, he says. Something big." 

That had even Zhou Mi put aside his preoccupation with Cho Kyuhyun and his motives. If Sungmin admitted to having gotten wind of something big, it was likely verging on the epic. 

"Did he say what it was?"

"No, only said it was a secret. Although apparently the whole of inhabited space is buzzing with something."

"How long until we get to the dock at Ko'Shi?" Kangin asked. 

"Three days if we continue at speed. Four on the outside." 

"Right. I'll get on the 'net to Sungmin to tell him to stop being a goddamn tease."

"Good luck, hyung!" Henry called after him.

"Sungmin isn't going to spill until we're there," Zhou Mi predicted when Kangin had left, pushing his plate aside. 

"Probably not," Henry agreed. "He'll enjoy watching Kangin shout ineffectually from across space, though."

"We should let him have his fun. And I should get back to work."

Henry glanced at the time.

"Break's still half an hour." 

"I know. I'd just... feel better having the ship in my hands again?"

Henry laughed.

"Stop babying the ship, Zhou Mi."

"But it's my precious!" Zhou Mi protested, grinning widely when Henry made an exaggerated face. 

"Seriously though, Heechul put Sulli at the controls and..."

"Sulli? The new girl? I thought she was working in the engine room with Amber."

"She is," Zhou Mi said sadly.

"Then why..?"

"She is, and I quote, 'good company'. I'd be fine if it were Fei or Jia but I don't think Sulli has ever flown on her own before? I mean Heechul is there but we're going to hit a patchy area in a bit and..."

"Yeah. Please get your ass back in that chair before we crash."

Zhou Mi threw him a mock salute before heading back to the control room. He kept himself from running until he was in the corridor, at least.

 

xxx

 

He made it another day before he was drawn back to the room with the force field. 

"I'm so glad you're here," Kyuhyun sighed, eyes wide and lips pouted and Zhou Mi's heart stuttered. 

"What?" he asked. It came out far more squeaky than he'd intended. He cleared his throat and repeated himself but judging by Kyuhyun's smirk the damage had been done. It was infuriating, the effect the brat had on him. Sometimes Zhou Mi just wanted to wring his neck.

Other times he wanted to kiss him breathless until the smirk would have quite disappeared, mouth wet and slack and wide eyes dark...

On the whole and all things considered, wringing his neck sounded like the safer option. 

"I'm bored," Kyuhyun said. "Entertain me, please. Also the food has, if possible, gotten worse. You've done that on purpose, haven't you?" 

Zhou Mi leaned against the wall. He very nearly managed to hide his own smile. 

"Why would I do that? And I'm not here for your amusement."

"What else are you here for? Yours? I refuse to be gloated at," Kyuhyun said with narrowed eyes. It was amazing, Zhou Mi thought, that he still thought he had a say in matters. 

"Answers," he said firmly.

"Oh. Well. You're not going to get any of those, so don't bother. While you're here, you've had your joke. I promise I won't say a word against the cook again, so please get me the oh-so-nearly-edible food next time. Thanks." He flopped down on the narrow bed and closed his eyes. 

Zhou Mi gritted his teeth. Wring his neck, definitely.

"I can't imagine what makes you think you're in any position to make demands.

"Demands?" Kyuhyun blinked and turned wide eyes to Zhou Mi. "Wouldn't dream of it. That was a perfectly polite request." 

"You don't make a very good prisoner," Zhou Mi remarked drily.

"I'm still here, aren't I? I think that's the only requirement. You don't make a stellar guard either, while we're on the topic. Look," he said deliberately, as if explaining things to a child, "sooner or later, you're going to need me. Want something of me anyway. I know you will because I know exactly what ship I'm on. You're pleased to call me a criminal but you're not much better yourself, are you? And when that time comes, it'll be better for everyone if I've been treated well."

"Never," Zhou Mi countered. "That time will never come, I'll see to that."

Kyuhyun smiled. It was a genuine, pleasant smile and it was infinitely more jarring than the worst of the smirks.

"Of course." 

 

xxx

 

It kept him away from Kyuhyun's cell for the remainder of the time it took them to reach Mu'Ho. He didn't know why the man got under his skin the way he did and it put him on edge.

He let the purring of the ship under his fingers soothe him, as it always did and by the time they docked at Ko'Shi three days later he'd managed to regain his calm and not think about Kyuhyun at all. Much. 

There was little enough for Zhou Mi to do while they were docked and maintenance crews buzzed around the ship. He was drinking fake coffees with Henry in the mess hall when Amber and Luna joined them on their lunch break. 

"From what I heard about him, I'm surprised this Cho Kyuhyun hasn't escaped yet. How difficult is that cell to escape from, I mean really?" Amber said. Zhou Mi gave her a horrified look.

"Did you have to say that? Really?" Henry sighed, thudding his head on the table before looking up again. "I don't even have anything against the guy. I've seen bunny rabbits looking more dangerous. But I think we should've thrown him out of an airlock just to save Zhou Mi from having a nervous breakdown."

"The problem with you is that you've been hidden away in New Beijing for too long," Amber argued. "This guy has worked his way into space stations, entire _fleets_ of ships, not to mention that super computer on Tooku. He's gotten his hands on unbelievable amounts of data and no one knows how he's managed it."

"What super computer on Tooku?"

"My point exactly."

"And he's still in our make-your-own-cell?" 

"Looks like it."

Henry whistled. 

"Wow."

"Just don't mention any of this to him," Zhou Mi interrupted.

"Like he's going to suddenly realize he has a brain?" Henry asked. 

"Something like that," he said grimly.

_I'm bored. Entertain me, please._

He shook his head to clear it. 

"Sungmin is late," he said to change the subject. 

"He should really hurry up," Luna said, glancing at the display on the wall. "We need to be back in engineering in fifteen minutes and I'm going to explode with curiosity."

"You know Sungmin," Zhou Mi said with a smile. "He'll drive us crazy stalling for as long as he can so he can drop his bomb as dramatically as possible."

"Heechul's going to have hysterics if he keeps this up much longer," Henry supplied. 

"As usual," a voice from behind him said. Henry whipped around.

"Sungmin! You're here." 

He jumped up and Sungmin pulled him into a hug. He grinned. 

"You all missed me?"

"Of course," Zhou Mi replied with a laugh as he accepted a hug as well. 

"Good. As you should, because once again I've come to relieve you from your everyday tedium," Sungmin promised.

"Are we sure Zhou Mi's heart can handle that, though," Amber joked. Zhou mi elbowed her.

"Oh? What did I miss?" Sungmin asked, leaning forward on his elbows, eyes sparkling.

"We'll tell you all about that later, he's not going anywhere-"

"We hope," Henry muttered under his breath.

"- And we're more interested in what you have to tell us."

"Hmmm." Sungmin leaned back. "Fine, I'll go first. Kangin not with you? I got the impression he wanted to hear this."

"Someone had to look after the ship," Henry said with a shrug. "We played rock, paper scissors for it. And then ran like hell."

"Now tell us about this so called once in a lifetime opportunity before I burst," Zhou Mi implored. Sungmin grinned widely and leaned in, beckoning them to do the same.

"Have you ever heard of the CHI-9 data?" 

He leaned back with a self satisfied look, like he'd just dropped the biggest cat among the pigeons.

"Feel free to fall out of your seats in excitement," he added off-handedly.

Zhou Mi frowned. Thanks in part to Heechul and his connections he was pretty well informed of the most important going ons in the quadrant, but the name didn't ring a bell. He glanced sideways at Henry, who shrugged and turned to Sungmin.

"Never heard of it." 

Sungmin's face fell.

"What, never? It's the talk of the damn universe. I mean, secret, secret talk behind locked and bolted doors, but I expected better of you."

"We might have been aware of it sooner if you hadn't been so tight lipped," Zhou Mi complained. "I'm pretty sure we employ you to tell us these things."

Sungmin pursed his lips. 

"Heechul pays you well, then?" he asked casually.

"That's not the point," Zhou Mi said but he sighed in defeat. "Alright. Disappointment noted, I'll let Heechul know to employ proper spies for these things. Now tell us about this data. What does it do?"

"We don't know."

"Okay," Henry said slowly. "So what is it? Formulas of some kind?"

"We don't know that either."

"So what _do_ you know?" Zhou Mi asked pointedly. Sungmin's smile could have eclipsed a sun.

"I know exactly how much money president Lee's men are willing to pay to get their hands on it." 

He told them.

 

xxx

 

"We could buy an entire _fleet_ ," Zhou Mi told Heechul that night. He swivelled around aimlessly in the captain's chair while Heechul paced along the length of his office.

"For sure. It's a computer? A super computer perhaps?"

Zhou Mi shrugged, leaning back far enough in the chair to look at the ceiling.

"Sungmin couldn't tell us. It's the data they're after - though what it does nobody seems to know. From the price? Weaponry of some kind, I'd guess."

"Enough to blow up half the universe, if the price is anything to go by."

"Perhaps it'd better stay hidden?" said Zhou Mi. He chewed on his bottom lip.

"Fat chance of that. I've been talking to some people since you've returned. We've definitely got competition." 

Zhou Mi sighed.

"And we might already be behind. Sungmin was late letting us in on this."

"I'm having a word with him later," Heechul promised grimly. "But on the bright side, we might have an edge on our competitors too."

Zhou Mi sat up at that, eyes widened. Then he slumped back, scowling.

"If you're going to say something about an excellent crew and a formidable captain I'll punch you."

Heechul laughed. "You'd never. Anyway that's not what I'm talking about. I'm _talking_ about the number one not-entirely-legal-but-damn-he-could-be-useful computer expert sitting in our cell." 

"What? No. No! Definitely not," Zhou Mi exclaimed. Surely not. All the fortune in the universe didn't seem a fair trade to playing right into Cho Kyuhyun's hand. The crew had always done well enough for themselves and they'd been in this business long enough to make some educated guesses on who else will be going after the CHI-9 data. They'd be in with a good chance without needing to involve this criminal. 

"Fate or whatever has handed us an excellent opportunity to get ahead. I'm not about to throw it away," Heechul answered. "I know you're not a fan, but if there's anyone who can tell us more about this thing, I'll bet it's him." 

"He won't do it, you know," Zhou Mi said, changing tactics. Heechul waved this away.

"In exchange for his freedom? I think he'll be remarkably talkative. I think the only loyalty he has is to himself. Anyway, just ask nicely."

"Me?!"

"Of course. You're the nice one."

He didn't feel like the nice one at the moment. Especially not when it concerned Cho Kyuhyun. He opened his mouth to protest but closed it when he saw Heechul's triumphant grin. 

"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?" he asked flatly. 

"Of course. You two need to kiss and make up. As long as he helps us, he's valuable and I don't much care what he's been up to before. I need both of you working together to get our hands on this blasted thing." 

"Just so he can make off with it at the last moment?" Zhou Mi sulked. 

"I never said you shouldn't keep an eye on him. But we need someone to get us in there and when's the last time you hacked a high security facility?" 

Heechul had a point but that didn't make him any happier about this. 

"... Henry?" he suggested tentatively.

"You want us all to die? If there's a self destruct button anywhere on that thing Henry will sniff it out. And press it. Accidentally, of course, but that doesn't make _me_ feel any better."

"He tries," said Zhou Mi.

"I"ll grant you. Now go and tell Cho Kyuhyun the happy news. And don't make me come down there." 

 

xxx

 

"You know about the CHI-9 data, don't you?" Zhou Mi asked, grabbing a stool and sitting down in front of the force field. Kyuhyun met his gaze and pursed his lips thoughtfully.

"Never heard of it," he said. Zhou Mi scoffed.

"Don't lie. It's the talk of the galaxy," he said. Never mind that they'd missed it themselves. Despite his protests to the captain there was one point they agreed on; there was no way Cho Kyuhyun didn't know about CHI-9. It would have been too intriguing to pass up and whatever else he might be, Kyuhyun was damn good at finding the information he wanted. If anything at all was known - and there was, there was money in the game now - no one would have been able to hide it from his quick fingers, Zhou Mi admitted grudgingly to himself. 

"I was otherwise engaged," Kyuhyun said with a pointed look around his cell. 

"And before that?" Zhou Mi asked. It wasn't like they'd had Kyuhyun for that long. Kyuhyun shrugged.

"I know as little as you apparently do," he said lightly. Zhou Mi frowned. He knew Kyuhyun was lying but he had no idea how to make the other talk. In exchange for his freedom... but Kyuhyun had been expecting that, hadn't he? Sooner or later they'd need him. Had that been about CHI-9? Or had Kyuhyun simply been in this kind of situation before? It wouldn't surprise him much. He took a deep breath.

"Please?" he tried. He hated to do this but Kyuhyun liked to win, didn't he?

Kyuhyun gave him a hard look.

"Look, all I know is that it's dangerous," he said finally. 

"We figured it might be a weapon," Zhou Mi said. Kyuhyun hummed thoughtfully.

"Perhaps. Not a bad thought. But not what I meant. It's dangerous to go after. Those who try seem to always get hurt in mysterious but... definite ways."

"That's not going to stop us," Zhou Mi said, trying to sound as casual as possible. He wasn't afraid. He'd been doing this for too long to be a stranger to threats. But this was the first time Kyuhyun had sounded earnest instead of mocking. It was a welcome change, to be sure, but it seemed like even finding CHI-9 was going to be more complicated than he'd hoped. 

"So," Kyuhyun said and the grin was back again, "You want me to help you find this thing, don't you?" 

"I definitely do not," Zhou Mi protested. He was pleased to see that Kyuhyun looked genuinely surprised for a moment. He liked pushing the other off balance even just for a second or two... 

"But the captain does," he had to grudgingly admit. He guessed the brief surprise had to make up for the lazy smile of satisfaction that followed. 

"Right. Well, it'll be a pain, of course, but I guess I can stoop to help you bumbling idiots. Ready when you are," he added, nodding to the force field and smiling brightly. He looked so young in that moment that Zhou Mi had to laugh. 

"You don't think you're getting out of there until we're back in space, do you?" 

"I thought you wanted me to help you," Kyuhyun protested, glaring at him. "I'm not helping you if you're not getting me out of here." 

Zhou Mi tried not to think that Kyuhyun looked cute when he was annoyed. The kid was probably going to destroy their ship while they weren't looking instead of being helpful. He couldn't afford to let his guard down. Kangin would be on guard too and for all his apparent carelessness, Heechul would be very wary when it came down to it. But what about Henry and the girls? 

He'd have another talk with them. Don't be fooled by big puppy eyes.

"Even with how bad you are at sneaking around, as long as we're docked there's too great a risk you'll simply disappear." 

"I don't like you anymore," Kyuhyun decided. Zhou Mi smiled.

"Did you like me in the first place?"

"I could tolerate you for about five seconds just now," Kyuhyun answered coolly. "Try harder next time." 

 

xxx

 

"You're leaving today?" Sungmin asked. Kangin and Zhou Mi had met him for lunch at a small cafe in the maze of streets behind the docks. The place was called The Globe and its speciality, according to the waiter, was authentic old-Earth cuisine. Zhou Mi couldn't judge its authenticity - and he doubted anyone alive today could - but it was delicious and that's what mattered.

"Yeah, maintenance was completed yesterday and we need to get going as soon as possible," Kangin answered. Zhou Mi nodded, mouth too full to speak. 

"They shouldn't have too much of a headstart on you," Sungmin reassured them. But he had the decency to look embarrassed. 

"We've been keeping an eye on several ships," Zhou Mi said between mouthfuls. "The Juliet changed directions suddenly several days ago. And I know the job they were on, Henry spoke to Taemin just recently. They've gone way off course." 

"The Athena has disappeared off the radar altogether," Kangin added. "And our informants tell us the Devil and the Typhoon are on this as well." Sungmin frowned at that. 

"I know the reward is big, guys, but... be safe, yeah?" 

"Always," Zhou Mi promised, smiling brightly. 

"We'll at least make sure we have plenty of energy before getting on our way," Kangin said scraping his plate clean. Zhou Mi nodded enthusiastically.

"Thanks for treating us, Sungmin!"

Sungmin choked on his soda, looking in horror at the table which was groaning under the weight of the plates.

"Wait, what?" 

"Just think of it as saying sorry," Kangin said cheerfully, slapping him on the back. 

"We'll return the favor when we return with cartloads of money," Zhou Mi promised, winking.

"'When', he says!" Sungmin spluttered. 

"Don't you have faith in us?"

"Of course not," Sungmin said and narrowly avoided Kangin's kick under the table. He laughed.

"Alright, alright. Get out, you two, go off on your treasure hunt. Just make it back alive."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence."

"Always," Sungmin said happily.

"It was nice to be in the open air again for a bit," Zhou Mi said when they'd made their way outside, tipping his head back in the afternoon sun. "I'll miss it." 

Kangin nodded in agreement.

"Every time," he said. "Though I'm surprised to hear you say it. You don't generally set foot outside of a ship unless absolutely necessary."

Zhou Mi laughed. "I have my moments. Every once in a while. I can't help it though, I think I was born to fly," he said cheerfully, spreading his arms and laughing at Kangin's face. 

"Let's go, then. I'm sure Heechul's getting impatient." 

"I heard he's been talking to our prisoner," Kangin said when they began their walk back to the docks. Zhou Mi started.

"Oh? That's right, he hadn't yet, had he?" 

"Nah, he thought it was more amusing to leave that to you."

"Very funny," Zhou Mi agreed solemnly. "How did it go?" 

"I don't know what was _said_ , but neither of them looked very happy by the end of it." 

"Kyuhyun rarely looks happy," Zhou Mi mused. He remembered Kyuhyun's smile that brief moment he thought Zhou Mi was letting him out. It had been the sweetest thing. "Which makes sense, I guess," he added hastily before he got lost in thought. 

"Yeah. He looked positively murderous," Kangin continued conversationally. "Which was nothing less than I'd expected. But the captain looked annoyed too. He's usually pretty pleased when he's the source of annoyance in others." 

"Cho Kyuhyun's a handful, though," Zhou Mi said with feeling. Kangin nodded.

"I'm not looking forward to babysitting duty when he gets the run of the ship, I can tell you that. Help me persuade the captain to get a geek of our own when this is all over." 

"Deal." 

They made it to the shuttle service that would take them to the ships with only seconds to spare and dropped into a pair of free seats at the back.

"I will miss the sun and fresh air but I'll also be really happy to be on our way again. The sooner we catch up the better," Zhou Mi said as he struggled with the seat belts. 

"Do we even know where we're going?" 

"For now, we're following the others. Henry's on the 'net talking to everyone he knows, trying to puzzle things together. And... I have a tiny bit of hope that Kyuhyun might still tell us more?" 

"Unwarranted optimism," Kangin opined.

"Tell me about it. But I think he knows more than he's telling us, at least. 

"Oh, I don't doubt _that_."

It only took a few minutes by shuttle to get to the Anna and Fei was waiting for them when they got there. 

"You're late," she scolded them. 

"There's still an hour before we're scheduled to leave," Zhou Mi protested. 

"The captain is being difficult, be my shield," she explained, grabbing him by the arm and steering him towards the control room. He waved a quick goodbye to Kangin who was almost bent double laughing.

"Couldn't you have made Henry deal with him?" 

"Henry got out yesterday and bought caffeine on the planet. He's bouncing off the ceiling at the moment." 

"Things are off to a good start."

"As always," Fei said. "One day, I'd like to be part of a properly functioning crew."

"Pfft. It'd be boring," Zhou Mi said, laughing. 

"There you are!" Heechul called out when they stepped into the control room. Zhou Mi met Fei's eyes and tried not to laugh. 

"Missed me?" he asked cheerfully, taking his seat at the controls. 

"Start powering up and mapping the route," Heechul instructed. "You have the Juliet's last known coordinates?" 

Zhou Mi nodded. His smile made way for a concentrated frown as the screen under his fingertips lit up. 

"Who touched this?" he asked after a few minutes. The captain frowned.

"No one. The maintenance crews only did hardware."

Zhou Mi glanced at Fei, who shook her head as well.

"Haven't touched the controls since she's been docked. No one has, as far as I'm aware." 

"What's wrong?" The captain demanded, standing to look over Zhou Mi's shoulder at the controls.

"I'm not sure?" Zhou Mi said uncertainly. He huffed in frustration as he reached another digital dead end.

"The computer's not doing what I want. And there seems to be no connection to the engine, which makes no sense. It's like... "

"Like what?" 

"Like the ship is almost empty inside. Like there's nothing behind the walls. The maintenance crews?" he asked.

"Were the same people we've always used," Heechul  
replied, frowning. "We've always been able to trust them." 

Zhou Mi's fingers danced across the screen, trying to find a backdoor, any way into the heart of the ship. But there was nothing. 

"Keep trying," Heechul said, voice tight. He stood back to contact Kangin and Amber, tell them to check the engines. All around him people were increasingly frantically trying to get the ship to respond.

It was a busy, tense fifteen minutes before they heard back from Kangin, his voice crackly over the line.

"All the hardwear's still here, captain. But we can't get anything out of it. She's dead." 

 

xxx

 

Zhou Mi stood in front of the force field. He was surprised it was still there, as was its occupant. But that didn't have to mean anything. 

"It was you, wasn't it?" 

At the back of the cell, Kyuhyun scrambled upright and approached the force field warily. 

"What happened?"

"Don't pretend you don't know. You finally finished what you came here for, didn't you?"

Kyuhyun's face twisted in confusion, eyes wide.

"I've been here," he said slowly. "I've been here all the time. I can't walk through force fields. Anyway, we had a deal, you're to let me out soon." 

Zhou Mi punched the wall and was gratified when Kyuhyun jumped.

"You're pretty scary when you're angry," Kyuhyun observed. "What happened?" 

"The ship's dead," Zhou Mi said and his voice sounded hollow to his own ears. Kyuhyun didn't immediately react. _Carefully_ didn't react, Zhou Mi thought. It had to have been him. It was too big of a coincidence.

How difficult would that cell be to break out of, Amber had asked. I'm surprised he hasn't escaped yet.

"I'm still here, aren't?" Kyuhyun said, as if he could read his thoughts on his face. His voice was surprisingly gentle. "Why would I be hanging around if I could just walk out? You said it yourself, it's easy to get off a ship when it's docked. And I'd hardly come back for the food or, sorry to say, the sparkling conversation. Besides, you're wrong." 

"Wrong about what?" 

"I never came here to kill the ship. You just assumed."

"Then what?" Zhou Mi demanded. Kyuhyun bit his lip. 

"I came to get... information," he said slowly. 

"What information? We didn't have anything valuable." 

"Information on your captain," Kyuhyun concluded awkwardly. Zhou Mi gaped. After all this, Kangin had been right? But no. That didn't explain...

"Then what happened to our ship? Who else would..?" 

"I warned you, didn't I?" Kyuhyun interrupted solemnly. Zhou Mi stared.

"What?"

"It's dangerous to go after CHI-9." 

 

xxx

 

"What do we do now?" Zhou Mi asked the captain. New repair crews, the crew themselves and a number of uniformed people Zhou Mi held to be dock officials were swarming around the ship. It was chaos, but at least the ship couldn't end up in worse shape than it already was. Anyway, Kangin would make sure no one actually made off with parts, dead or not. 

He'd found Heechul in his office, head in his hands. 

"We'll have to back out of the chase, I suppose," Zhou Mi continued quietly. "But there'll be other jobs. We'll be fine. We'll just have to get the Anna back on her feet and..." 

"Your old shuttle," Heechul said suddenly, rubbing his face and looking up. "It's still in the hold?" 

Zhou Mi raised his eyebrows.

"Of course, but..." 

"Will it fly?" 

Zhou Mi stood up straighter.

"It will fly," he promised. Then he hesitated for a moment. A situation such as this was no time for excessive pride in his loyal little ship.

"I can get her to fly," he amended quickly. Heechul laughed.

"Of course. Like I'd trust anyone else with her. Or trust her with anyone else?" 

"What do you want me to do?" Zhou Mi asked hesistantly.

"Join the chase!" Heechul said, thumping his fist on the desk. 

"In a shuttle? She can fly, I'll give you that, but don't ask me for speed. Or flying in a straight line or any fancy tricks like that."

"Find out what you can. We'll get the Anna fixed as soon as possible and follow you. If we know where we need to be we might just get there in time," Heechul said. He made a face like he knew that was more hope than prediction.

"We can give it a go, anyway. I'm not ready to give up yet. And if you can get some of the other ships to be... delayed in completely the wrong part of the universe that would be a bonus," he added off-handedly. "I'll get Henry on that as well." 

Zhou Mi nodded. It made sense to send a shuttle ahead. It might be dangerous, of course, but then, what wasn't? 

"I'll take Kangin with me," he said. As much as the man would complain about bouncing after enemy ships in a tin can, he was armed and capable, two things that would make Zhou Mi significantly safer in open space. 

"No," Heechul said, looking away. 

"No?" Zhou Mi blinked. "What do you mean, no? Surely you can miss him for a while, Amber and Luna will manage just fine and this is the more important..."

"You're taking Kyuhyun," Heechul said, still refusing to meet his eyes.

Zhou Mi took a deep breath. No. This was not happening.

"I'm really not," he said. "If this is a joke, it's not a very good one, captain."

"Not a joke. I'm sorry but I'm sure he knows where it is - he knows _what_ is there, anyway. He'll know where to look. It'll be a lot more efficient than flying blind."

"I'll have to sleep," Zhou Mi protested. "You can't leave him alone with me."

"He won't hurt a fly. Our little hacker will help us, don't worry about that. Besides, it'd be suicide. You're the only one who can keep that old thing going." 

"I'll make sure to tell him that," Zhou Mi said, folding his arms. "I thought you liked me at least a little. Is this just a way to get rid of him? I heard that you two fought."

Heechul's expression became unreadable.

"Fight? No, we didn't fight. We just talked. Turns out we have an old friend in common." 

Zhou Mi furrowed his brow. "A friend? Who..?"

"Someone I knew a long time ago. You've never met him," Heechul said quickly. "He was... a good man, though." 

Zhou Mi nodded. Sometimes, when he thought about what people were made of, he figured he was made up of about 80% curiosity. It's why he'd ended up like this in the first place. But there was something in Heechul's expression that stopped him from prying. He wondered whether this friend was even still alive. And he hoped Heechul didn't put his trust in Kyuhyun simply because he'd associated with the right people once. After all, Heechul himself certainly couldn't be trusted by anyone outside of their little dysfunctional family. 

"This is all a very bad idea," Zhou Mi said with a resigned sigh.

"Oh, well. That strategy's always worked for us before," said the captain. 

 

xxx

 

The shuttle had been hidden at the back of the cargo bay, behind crates upon crates of stuff, gathering dust and rust.

It looked as old as the universe and he shuddered to even start thinking of words like 'safety'. 

But it flew. They'd even tested it. At the last possible damn moment. He kicked the wall in frustration.

This had not gone according to plan. 

xxx

 

"If you want me to share with you the secrets of the universe," said Kyuhyun, "there'd better be some changes."

He looked down meaningfully at the cuffs around his wrists.

"No," Zhou Mi said cheerfully, I choose life, thank you." 

Kyuhyun glared at him from under his fluffy bangs.

"Your captain trusts me just fine, you know." 

"We all have our faults," said Zhou Mi. "Now come on, the faster we're off and you let me in on those secrets, the faster we'll be done and those cuffs'll come off. It's a win-win situation." 

"You're a very unpleasant person," Kyuhyun said conversationally as he trudged behind Zhou Mi through the corridors to the cargo bay. "I've mentioned this to several of the people who were on guard but they all laughed and made inane comments about puppies and kittens." 

"Hmmm?"

"Which makes me think you're trying extra hard for my sake," Kyuhyun continued. "Don't feel like you have to, that's all I wanted to say."

"There's just something about you, I guess," said Zhou Mi airily. It was hard not to laugh, it really was. 

"You can probably forgive me with a clean conscience now," Kyuhyun persisted. "I'm pretty sure you had me locked up long enough for breaking and entering."

"You weren't in there for more than a couple of days," said Zhou Mi. He put his hand on the scanner at the cargo hold door.

"It's not like I ever even took any- What is that," he said flatly.

" _That_ is our transportation." Zhou Mi beamed with pride. Kyuhyun stared. Then he turned to Zhou Mi.

"I'll tell you everything you want to know, but I'm too young to die." 

 

xxx

 

Zhou Mi settled back into the pilot's chair, smiling in satisfaction as he ran his hands over the controls. They were off and she was working perfectly, purring along. 

Next to him, Kyuhyun was sitting up straight and tense, glaring suspiciously at the panels and screens around him, as if they might explode at any moment. The handcuffs had come off for now, "for safety reasons," Zhou Mi had said as he reached across Kyuhyun to buckle him into the chair. Kyuhyun had looked as if he might pass out from terror. 

"You're enjoying this too much," he crabbed at Zhou Mi after a while. Zhou Mi beamed back. He was enjoying this. Too much to even bother with a witty comeback.

"This is what flying was really meant to be," he said. He pulled back several levers as Kyuhyun looked on apprehensively. They were far enough away from Ko'Shi now to pick up some speed. Kyuhyun pulled a face and tried to look away from the main screen.

"What's this?" he asked, fingertips touching the plastic dangling overhead. Zhou Mi glanced sideways. 

"Oxygen mask," he replied. "In case the air pressure fails."

"Why did I ask," Kyuhyun said gloomily. "Don't you have safeties for that?" 

Zhou Mi blinked.

"Yes? The mask is the safety," he explained. 

"Great." 

"Maybe you can be helpful instead of repeating we're going to die," Zhou Mi suggested.

"I am being helpful!" Kyuhyun protested. "I'm praying very hard that somehow the universe will spare us."

Zhou Mi snorted. He rummaged around in the compartment at his side and pulled out a small tablet computer.

"Enter these coordinates, please. I'm sure you can multitask." 

"What's there?" Kyuhyun asked. He squinted at the screens and dials in front of him. "Also, this tablet, although five years out of date, I can deal with. But where do I..?" 

Zhou Mi pointed blindly to one of the screens. They weren't out of inhabited space yet, he had to keep his eyes in front. 

"That one. I thought you were the computer genius?"

"Exactly. Not a historian." 

Zhou Mi chanced a quick glare sideways and Kyuhyun grinned back.

"Don't insult her. She's perfect in every way," Zhou Mi said, patting the dashboard lovingly. 

"Don't make me throw up. Anyway, these coordinates? What's there?" Kyuhyun prompted. 

"The Juliet, do you know it?" 

"Heard of it," said Kyuhyun.

"They're after the CHI-9 as well and they were heading in that" - he nodded at the tablet with the coordinates - "direction. As an approximate direction, it's as good as any. Meanwhile, I'll wait for you to get fed up and tell me where we're actually going." 

Kyuhyun chewed on his lower lip, considering the coordinates. 

"You know what? This isn't all that far off."

The numbers he keyed into the ships computer were almost the same as Zhou Mi remembered, but not quite.

 

xxx

 

"We might not actually die," Kyuhyun conceded on the third day. "But I'm starting to wish we would. You know, I could upgrade the system of this thing. It'll give me something to do and she'll probably fly a hundred times better as well."

"Unlike you, I don't have a death wish yet. You're not laying a finger on her while we're in midspace. And stop sulking." 

 

xxx

 

The days passed slowly and uneventfully, apart from the occasional asteroid he had to avoid (Kyuhyun had yelled at him for a good ten minutes when he'd executed a perfect looping during one of these evasive manoeuvres, until Zhou Mi had been doubled over laughing so hard he nearly really crashed into a piece of space debris) and occasionally grabbing Kyuhyun's hands and dragging him away from the computer, when it looked like he'd been doing something significantly more complicated than navigating. He pretended not to notice when the shuttle suddenly accelerated faster than it had been able to in the past twenty years, because it wasn't even actually possible to achieve that on a navigation computer.

It was almost to his annoyance that, as the days passed, he slowly got used to Kyuhyun. It took so much energy to dislike him when all the sarcasm and complaints and secret ship innovations were more amusing than anything. 

"It's been five days," Kyuhyun moaned, wriggling around in his chair to find a position slightly less agonizing. "I'm so hungry." 

"There's plenty of food," Zhou Mi said, looking at his companion in surprise. "If you needed extra you only had to ask." 

"Those things should not be called food," Kyuhyun said bitterly. "I mean real food, I'm hungry for real food." 

He leaned to the side to peer at one of the screens in front of Zhou Mi. He jabbed a finger at one corner.

"There! There's a planet half a day's travel from here. We should stop there." 

"... So you can eat," Zhou Mi said doubtfully. But it didn't sound like such a bad idea, to be honest. It would take precious time, but they'd made good time so far - and although the shuttle had a bit of room to walk around in, it would be nice to properly stretch his legs. He enjoyed flying the small shuttle more than a fully equipped giant, but he was starting to miss some of the advantages of a ship the size of a small village. Such as that you would find, inside, pretty much the facilities of a small village. 

He just refused to show any of his discontent to Kyuhyun, who cheerfully complained for two. 

"You know, we're pretty close to where the Juliet went off course. I know some people here, I could ask around," Kyuhyun suggested slyly. 

And that settled that. 

 

xxx

 

They docked near the largest city on the dayside of the planet and took the shuttle service down to the surface. Zhou Mi blinked in the harsh sunlight. The sun here was slightly too close for comfort, its rays more damaging than he was used to. He'd had to lather on an entire pot of protective cream before disembarking. Kyuhyun seemed even worse off, hidden underneath oversized, longsleeved clothes, a hat and a facemask. 

"You okay in there?" Zhou Mi asked, pulling back the mask a fraction and peeking at the face underneath. Kyuhyun grunted and swatted his hand away.

"I'm fine," he said, pulling his sleeves down to cover his hands. "Let's go inside somewhere." 

Zhou Mi nodded.

"Do you know who we should talk to about..."

"I can't think on an empty stomach," Kyuhyun interrupted. "We should eat first. I know plenty of places for that. Let's go."

Warm fingers encircled Zhou Mi's wrist as Kyuhyun pulled him along. He'd thought to protest but his stomach growled at the thought of food and part of him was curious where Kyuhyun would take him. 

"Here we are!" the other said a few streets further on, and although Zhou Mi couldn't see the smile on Kyuhyun's face behind the layers of fabric, he could hear it in his voice. 

The building was painted in bright colors and wedged in between its larger neighbors. There were colorful example dishes in the large window beside the door, even brighter than the paintjob. Zhou Mi regarded them doubtfully. They didn't look like anything he'd ever eaten before or even mentally categorized as being food.

"You mentioned real food..?" he said carefully. Kyuhyun nodded enthusiastically and started to point out different dishes all of which were the single most delicious thing ever and Zhou Mi should definitely try them why hadn't he ever tried them before he clearly hadn't lived. Zhou Mi found himself automatically smiling in response to Kyuhyun's enthusiasm. 

The hand Kyuhyun wasn't using to gesture wildly at the food with was still grasping his wrist. It felt comfortable enough and for the first time in days he remembered the handcuffs that were still somewhere in the shuttle. (Kyuhyun had kicked them under his chair the first day, out of reach and out of sight.) So far, he hadn't been killed. He didn't think anyone could die from puppy eyes or sarcasm, either. These appeared to be Kyuhyun's two greatest weapons, so he was probably safe.

Kyuhyun's ode to food had petered out and he was looking expectantly at Zhou Mi. Zhou Mi looked at the dishes, which he hoped only _appeared_ to be looking back at him.

"I, uh, I'm not sure I'm ready for this... experience," he tried. Kyuhyun threw his hands in the air in exasperation.

"You clearly don't know what you're talking about, so you're overruled," he decided and unceremoniously dragged Zhou Mi through the door. He ushered them both to a table in the back and proceeded to order what Zhou Mi suspected was half the menu, before he could even open his mouth to protest.

"Uh, tea, please?" he added when the waiter glanced at him. 

When the food arrived, Zhou Mi poked at the plate he'd been given with one of the strange utensils. He'd taken interplanetary cultural studies in university once, but the curriculum hadn't included cutlery. He tried to subtly peek at how Kyuhyun was eating this, but Kyuhyun was delaying eating his own meal in favor of sending Zhou Mi half hopeful half encouraging looks. These weren't helpful but they did make him feel bad enough that he couldn't bring himself to try to get out of this. He stabbed at a softer looking part and, closing his eyes and praying for mercy, put it in his mouth before he could change his mind. 

It was something in Kyuhyun's face, too hopeful, that translated the surprised "it's actually edible" his brain supplied to the "it's really good" that he actually said. Kyuhyun cheered and wasted no time digging into his own heaping plate.

"I knew you'd like it," he said with a full mouth. 

"You're really enthusiastic about food, aren't you?" Zhou Mi said weakly. Kyuhyun nodded happily.

"Best invention of the universe. Ha! And it's not even an invention, not really. It's right there on the habitable planets and we get to bask in its glory." 

"Ever thought about becoming a chef?" Zhou Mi asked. "Most hackers I've met go weak at the knees at the sight of a few yottabytes or whatever, but you seem more passionate about food than technology. It might be a safer profession as well," he added pointedly. And, he caught himself, not a little hopefully. It was annoyingly easy to forget to dislike Kyuhyun. Especially when enthusiasm made his eyes bright and he forgot to be sarcastic.

Kyuhyun laughed.

"That's what you think. To be enthusiastic and to be talented are two different things, unfortunately. I tried to cook once. They had to evacuate an entire space station." 

Zhou Mi laughed along with Kyuhyun, but he grew thoughtful after a while. There was a lot he didn't know about his companion and the more time they spent together, the more curious he got. 

"Did you grow up on a space station?" he asked. Kyuhyun looked up in surprise from what was left of his... fish, Zhou Mi had settled on. Probably fish. Kind of fish. Fish like thing. 

"Why do you ask?"

Zhou Mi shrugged. 

"Just curious. It would explain how bad you are with the sun here." 

"Where are you from?" Kyuhyun asked instead of replying, focusing on his food again. 

"Mars Two," Zhou Mi replied cheerfully. He'd eaten enough to be polite so he wrapped his hands around a mug of pretty passable tea.

"Ah, the old colonies," Kyuhyun said. "Back when they'd found planets but lost their imagination. Or had just given up, I guess." 

"I guess the only thing they had to remind them of home were names," Zhou Mi said thoughtfully. He'd wondered about them sometimes, the people who'd had to leave behind their planet, their entire solarsystem. To boldly go... To who knows where, never to be truly home again. Then he laughed at the face Kyuhyun made. "Well, what about you then? Where are you from?"

"Nowhere in particular," Kyuhyun said evasively. "Bit of everywhere, really. Don't tell me you only eat old colony so-called Earth food. It's all junk. Not to mention boring," he continued quickly. It was an obvious attempt at changing the subject but so far Zhou Mi's track record at making Kyuhyun talk about things he didn't want to was lousy. And he had perfectly tasty junk to defend. 

"I went to a place on Ko'Shi the other day, it served authentic old Earth food," he told Kyuhyun inbetween sips of tea.

"Hmmm? How would they even know?" Kyuhyun wondered aloud, wrinkling his nose in annoyance. "Was it much different than the usual old colonies stuff?" 

"I don't know. They might have just made it up, I guess. But it was different. And really delicious." 

Kyuhyun nodded thoughtfully and was silent for a while as he finished his food and Zhou Mi finished his tea.

"Take me there some day," Kyuhyun said eventually. 

"I will," Zhou Mi replied before thinking and he didn't know who was more surprised, Kyuhyun or himself. 

xxx

 

They stayed at a hotel on the surface that night. Zhou Mi had booked one double room for the two of them. They might have both mellowed, he had no desire to tempt fate and make it too easy for Kyuhyun to disappear into the night. Despite Kyuhyun's teasing and cooing that he _did_ like him after all. If he could ignore himself thinking that (could he? he was going soft, although Kangin would probably argue he'd always been soft and it was no good pretending) he'd certainly manage to ignore Kyuhyun's feeble attempts at humor. 

"Beds!" Kyuhyun cried happily when they unlocked their room and he launched himself at one of them. 

"Don't pretend like the shuttle doesn't have beds!" Zhou Mi protested, although he let himself relax against the fat pillows of the other one with a pleased sigh.

"Not ones this comfortable," Kyuhyun countered, rolling around happily on the soft mattress. "This is perfect." 

"You better have some names for me tomorrow," Zhou Mi said after a while, stretching and yawning. He should change out of his clothes before he fell asleep. "This isn't just a pleasure trip, you know." 

He glanced sideways when there was no answer and smiled. Kyuhyun had already fallen asleep, curled up on his side. 

"You're really such a child," Zhou Mi muttered, shaking his head as he leaned over Kyuhyun to take off his hat and face mask and throw a blanket over him. 

 

xxx

 

"Names," Zhou Mi said sternly over breakfast. For all the good it did, he thought. Kyuhyun looked as if he was about to fall asleep in his porridge. The past few days had taught him that Kyuhyun's brain appeared to wake up several hours after his body did and that it was an uphill battle trying to tell or make him do anything in the interval. Kyuhyun blinked sleepily and settled down further into his sweater.

"What names?" 

"You told me there were people you knew, that you could talk to. About where we need to be looking for CHI-9?" Zhou Mi prompted. Kyuhyun considered this for a while. Zhou Mi reached across the table to steady the hot mug he was clutching when it threatened to spill over.

"Oh. I may have lied." 

Zhou Mi groaned. 

"I was afraid of that. Tell me you're joking. Think very carefully, Cho Kyuhyun, or I'm never taking you anywhere again. Kyuhyun's lips bowed into a pout even though Zhou Mi seriously doubted he even registered what was said. There was no other reply forthcoming and Zhou Mi sighed in defeat. He'd finish his breakfast and try to contact Henry, he decided. They might know something by now. 

"We should go back to the docks," Kyuhyun said slowly, half an hour later. Zhou Mi looked up from his tablet and put down his coffee cup. The crew had sadly been just as clueless as he was. 

"Finally woke up? I was about to leave without you." 

"Like you would," Kyuhyun said but the effect was ruined by a yawn. 

"Why do you want to go back to the docks?" Zhou Mi put his tablet away and grabbed his bag to leave. "I guess it's good to get on our way again as soon as possible, but I'd like to have at least something to show for our landing."

"There'll be interesting people there," Kyuhyun said. Zhou Mi turned to give him a look. 

"How do you know that?" he asked. Kyuhyun shrugged.

"Found out yesterday." He waggled his fingers. "Magic."

Magic indeed. 

"Did you steal my..." Zhou Mi started.

"No." Kyuhyun looked insulted. "Digital walls at the restaurant."

"I was there the whole time! You were only eating."

"No you weren't." Kyuhyun stopped to put his hat and face mask back on before they went outside. "You went to the bathroom." 

Zhou Mi stopped in his tracks and stared.

"For like thirty seconds!" he blurted. Kyuhyun shrugged.

"I don't know. I work fast, I guess."

"Are you going to tell me who these interesting people are?" he asked when they were out on the street, turning to Kyuhyun who was trailing behind him. 

Kyuhyun hesitated.

"It's a surprise," he said finally, fidgetting with his sleeves. "Because I'm not sure about... Um. Just, you carry a gun, right?" 

"Ah," Zhou Mi said grimly. "That kind of surprise." 

They took the shuttle service to the docks in silence, Kyuhyun trying to muffle a yawn behind his hand every few minutes. 

"Let's put our stuff in the shuttle first," Zhou Mi said when they got there. "And maybe, against my better judgment pick up something for you. If you shoot me, even by accident, I'll kill you," he added quickly when Kyuhyun looked up in surprise. 

He'd been halfway through another comment - scolding Kyuhyun? advice on how to hold a gun? he couldn't remember now - when they arrived at dock 93 where their shuttle was waiting for them. 

The door was open. He could feel Kyuhyun freeze beside him. 

"You locked everything, right?" he whispered.

"Of course." 

"I figured. You don't have an extra weapon on you, do you?" 

"No." He should have had, he told himself. He'd gone down to an unknown planet in the middle of a mission, accompanied by Cho Kyuhyun. He should have been armed to the teeth. It was just that he was never heavily armed, except for the standard phaser gun. He'd always had either Henry or Kangin at his side for that sort of thing. 

Sometimes he wished his job was legal enough to call the police when these things happened. 

"Okay what we're going to do is this," Kyuhyun whispered urgently. "I'm going to hide and you're going to call me when you've shot everyone and it's safe to come out?" 

"That's the worst plan I've ever heard," Zhou Mi whispered back angrily. 

"Do you have a better one?" 

"I could use you as a shield, for one, that sounds tempting." 

Kyuhyun gave him an indignant look and was about to retort when the sounds of a crash came from the shuttle. He scrambled to hide behind Zhou Mi, who reached for his gun. 

"Shoot anything that moves," he ordered, peeking over Zhou Mi's shoulder and twisting his hands in the fabric of his jacket. 

Zhou Mi took a shuddering breath.

"No one's coming out yet. Look, you hide over there until it's safe and I'll go in to look. I'm not waiting for them to completely trash my shuttle." 

"Why all the arguing when you're just going to agree with my plan? I knew it was a good one. Be careful," he added before he darted away.

Because I just remembered you've never been in a real fight, Zhou Mi thought. And I could feel you shaking when you grabbed hold of me. 

He approached the ship carefully, until he was close enough to hear muffled voices. There were at least three people inside. Maybe more. He wasn't stupid enough, or such a good shot, that he even wanted to attempt to beat those odds.

He knew his ship, though, better than whoever was rummaging through her right know, getting their dirty paws on all her delicate instruments. It had been quiet since the crash earlier but there was more noise now, the tinkling of glass breaking. Zhou Mi winced and backed away from the open hatch. He knew his ship. He knew that there was a significantly more subtle back door, for example.

He edged around the ship and flipped open a hidden panel, punching in the entrance code. He held his breath as the door slid open with a hiss. At least the system still worked. And with any luck, whoever was in there only cared about the main controls and not the generously termed living area (more realistically, a bunk and a half) in the back. 

He stopped in his tracks when he entered the main part of the shuttle and almost lowered his gun in surprise, only just remembering himself.

"What do you think you're doing here?" he demanded. "We had an agreement!" 

The three men, who Zhou Mi all knew to be flying with the Juliet, looked up in shock. Most of the controls of the shuttle were smashed. Zhou Mi tightened his grip on the gun. 

Taemin had the decency to look embarrassed, though that was not going to stop Zhou Mi from ordering Henry to send him a particularly nasty virus at the earliest opportunity. 

"We did, but that was before we were told you were after the CHI-9 as well." Is this what Kyuhyun had meant, Zhou Mi wondered, when he'd said it would be dangerous. Everyone fighting among each other. "You were spying on us, too," Taemin continued defiantly. 

"Tracked your coordinates, maybe," Zhou Mi admitted. "That's a far cry from smashing up a ship." 

"Just your shuttle," Minho protested and Zhou Mi wanted to punch him in the face for that. "We won't hurt you, you know that. Not unless you leave us no choice," he added, nodding at Zhou Mi's gun. "You can wait here for Heechul and the Anna. This planet's friendly enough. And by the time they'll get here I'm sure you won't have to bother chasing us anymore."

"You, did you sabotage the Anna as well?" Zhou Mi asked. Minho shook his head.

"We didn't. You should know we weren't anywhere near you. That was a stroke of luck for us. Now drop the gun." 

"Not a chance." There was only one of him but - they probably wouldn't kill him. The same went for him, but his gun was already set on stun blast. And at this moment he was the only one with his finger on the trigger. 

He could probably take out two of them, he told himself, before they could shoot back. But Minho would be a problem. 

He couldn't hesitate for too long and when he saw movement from the corner of his eyes he smiled grimly, and hoped, and shot.

He managed to hit the other two, like he'd predicted. Minho tried to return fire but before either he or Zhou Mi could pull the trigger, Kyuhyun had hit him over the back of the head. 

"Idiot! He could've killed you," Kyuhyun scolded, prodding the prone figure with a foot. 

"I could see you sneaking in," Zhou Mi said. "You're horrible at sneaking, you know, it's a good thing I was winning." He grinned. It was pure adrenaline and he'd pay for it later but right now he felt like he could take 300 attackers. Kyuhyun huffed.

"I had about half a second to figure out who to hit. What made you think that was going to work?"

"I had faith in you." 

Kyuhyun gave him a searching look.

"I mean..." Zhou Mi started.

"I get it, I get it." Kyuhyun looked around at the mess, stepping gingerly around the broken glass. He sniffed.

"I would have done a neater job. Smashing it all up, I mean, really." 

"Hmmm. I guess they were telling the truth," said Zhou Mi.

"About what?"

"I wondered whether they were behind the sabotage to the Anna as well. But that was a surgical job. Neat, like you say. This is just butchery." He sagged down in the chair, poking at the debris with his foot. They needed to get out of here before the three men woke up, or others from their ship would come looking. But this was his shuttle. He couldn't just leave. 

"We don't know that." Kyuhyun looked uncomfortable. "It could have been someone else from their ship. Or they could have had more time to work back then." 

"I suppose." 

"Should we get out of here?" Kyuhyun looked around. "Or can you fix this? We could dump them outside, no problem." 

Zhou Mi shook his head as he rested a hand on the wrecked controls.

"Me? No. I can do small repairs but this is hopeless. I wouldn't even know where to start. Can you do anything with her?" 

"I only do software. I'm sorry, Zhou Mi." Kyuhyun reached out and awkwardly patted his shoulder. 

There was a soft groan from the floor. Zhou Mi took a deep breath. He needed to pull himself together. He made his way to the shuttle's storage, pulling out a bag with necessities and two extra weapons. He wordlessly handed one of them to a surprised Kyuhyun. 

"We need to get out of here quickly. And figure out what to do from here." 

He made his way out via the back again and Kyuhyun followed hurriedly. 

"What do you mean?" he asked, trying to keep up with Zhou Mi's long strides. "You want to give up on the CHI-9?" 

"What? No! As if Heechul would let me. But we need to find a way to get off this planet. And quick." 

"Oh." Kyuhyun sounded disappointed, but he recovered quickly. "Well, that shouldn't be too hard. Hold on." 

Zhou Mi stopped, hesitantly.

"You have a plan?"

"I might have." Kyuhyun looked around at the rows of ships. "How big is the Juliet?" 

Zhou Mi's eyes widened. 

"You're not saying..." he started, and then he remembered the state his shuttle had been left in. "Not very big. There are only two other crew members, as far as I know."

"Well then." Kyuhyun hefted the gun Zhou Mi had handed him. "Teach me how to use this, please." 

 

xxx

 

Zhou Mi sat at the controls, staring at the blinking lights, head in his hands. 

"How's it going?" Kyuhyun asked, popping up behind him. "All the doors are locked and old codes overwritten, I've made sure of that, so no one's getting in. But we should probably get out of here as soon as we can. They might try to get the police involved. So. Whenever you're ready? Um." He hesitated when Zhou Mi didn't respond. "Are you... having guilt issues? Because they'll be fine. Eventually. And Irodori's a lovely place, if you don't mind the sun." 

"It's not that." Zhou Mi sighed, rubbing his face. "Next time, remind me to shoot first and threaten later. We left Onew with enough time to lock the controls. I can't get in." 

Kyuhyun stared at him. 

"Can't get in? Did you forget who you're with? Get out." Kyuhyun ushered him out of the pilot's chair and took his place. He cracked his knuckles. "I am _good_ with ships."

"You've spent the past week crying to me about how much you hate them," Zhou Mi reminded him. He took a seat next to Kyuhyun and watched the other's pale fingers fly over the control screens. 

"Your ship," Kyuhyun corrected. "This one was at least built this past century. Anyway, getting it to do what I want is simply a matter of computers. You hurtling us into an inconveniently located star is another matter entirely." 

Zhou Mi hummed. He rested his chin in his hands as he watched Kyuhyun work. 

"You could have gotten out," he commented idly after a while.

"Hmmm?" Kyuhyun looked up from where he was kneeling on the floor next to an opened bulkhead, messing with buttons and wires Zhou Mi hadn't even known existed. 

"Leave you at their mercy, you mean? I like you too much for that. Um. That is, I've gotten used to you? And I'm not that much of an asshole. I mean..." He bent to look at a flashing light deep inside the wall, avoiding Zhou Mi's gaze. "I don't necessarily want you to die." 

Zhou Mi smiled. 

"I don't want you to die either, I suppose." 

Kyuhyun turned to look at him, hitting his head on the edge of the open panel in his rush. Zhou Mi bit his lip not to laugh. 

"Good. That's good," said Kyuhyun. His cheeks were flushed pink and Zhou Mi couldn't stop his smile widening until it hurt his face. 

"You look nicer when you smile. You should do it more," Kyuhyun mumbled. He turned around and refocused on the inner workings of the ship before Zhou Mi could respond. But it was a while before the smile slipped from Zhou Mi's face. 

He wasn't dragged back to reality until Kyuhyun called out that he was done. He gave up the pilot's seat to Zhou Mi again and now that the ship did what he wanted, Zhou Mi could finally get them out of here.

It wasn't what he'd meant, he thought to himself as he went through the take off procedures. He scolded himself for getting sidetracked, but he didn't want to bring it up again now. Not after... that. Whatever that had been. A truce, he supposed. In the making since he'd been forced to eat funny food.

What he'd meant was, that Kyuhyun could have gotten out of the cell on the Anna. He was more and more certain of that. That meant that theoretically, he could have sabotaged the ship. And he'd be more than capable of that. 

Neatly, as he'd put it. No big sticks and broken glass. Just a sudden absence. 

But why? Not why he'd have done it, Zhou Mi could think of ten different reasons right away, ranging from money to 'just because I can'. But, like Kyuhyun had protested right away, if he'd done it, why had Zhou Mi found him in his cell? And Kyuhyun was certainly helping him now. He wouldn't have gotten away if it hadn't been for him. 

Or if it hadn't been Kyuhyun, did he know who did do it? 

He remembered the captain and their mutual friend. Did Heechul know more than Zhou Mi did? It had been the captain who had sent Kyuhyun off with him, after all. 

He'd have to bother Heechul about it when the Anna met up with them again. He could be difficult, but Zhou Mi guessed he'd have more luck there than with his enigmatic companion. 

 

xxx

 

He checked the coordinates again. It was mostly empty space around them, but there was one small, uninhabited planet. It looked mostly like an asteroid, caught in an orbit. 

"We're here," Zhou Mi said, gently shaking Kyuhyun awake. He'd nodded off in the co-pilot's chair about an hour ago. The Juliet was a lot bigger than the shuttle, so there were plenty more comfortable places to rest, but over the past few days Kyuhyun had made excuse after excuse to keep him company. They had all been delightfully unconvincing, but Zhou Mi was hardly going to call him out on that. 

Kyuhyun stirred.

"Where's here?" he asked, voice thick with sleep. He blinked at the screen. Empty space. 

"Your coordinates. I don't know what you hoped to find here, though." 

"Oh!" That seemed to wake Kyuhyun up remarkably quick. He scrambled upright and reached for the communication controls. These were on Zhou Mi's other side, however, so that Zhou Mi suddenly had a lap full of Kyuhyun.

"Um. Anything I can do?" he suggested tentatively, resting his hands on either side of Kyuhyun's waist when he threatened to topple to the floor entirely. 

"No. Encoded frequencies," Kyuhyun replied shortly, tapping away energetically. 

"How many people are you contacting?" As far as Zhou Mi could tell, Kyuhyun was sending message after message and made no move to abandon his precarious position yet. 

"Just the one. But he's a bit absent minded. I'm trying to convey the urgency of our situation." 

"Where is he? A ship nearby?" Leaning over Kyuhyun, he could just catch sight of the radar and it was still showing nothing. 

"Hmm? No, the planet." 

"It's registered as uninhabited," Zhou Mi said, more so that Kyuhyun would give him more details than any doubt that Kyuhyun had friends who hid on uninhabited planets. 

"He's got a lab under the surface."

"Of course he does." Zhou Mi thought about this, wondering what kind of person they'd be meeting soon. "That sounds like one of those super villains from animations when I was young," he offered. Kyuhyun laughed at that, Zhou Mi could feel his stomach quiver under his hands. 

"He's the least evil person I know. And I know people in quite distant corners of the universe." 

Zhou Mi wanted to comment on the kind of people Kyuhyun associated with but then he remembered their first meeting and Henry telling him about Ryeowook.

"Your roommate back in New Beijing seemed pretty innocent," he said instead. 

"What, Ryeowook?" Kyuhyun considered this. " _Most_ evil person I know, probably. Only temporarily dethroned by you when you locked me up, until I found out you're harmless." 

"Harmless, am I?" He pinched Kyuhyun's waist, making as if to tickle him and Kyuhyun shot up, batting at his hands and scrambling back to the safety of his own chair.

"Evil," Kyuhyun decided when he was safely out of reach, and still slightly out of breath. Zhou Mi laughed. 

"I'll see how an underground lab suits me as an evil lair, shall I?" 

"Just don't touch anything in case it explodes," Kyuhyun said drily. 

"I thought he wasn't a bad guy?"

"Not at all. But mad? Most definitely. Now, let's have lunch while we wait for him to get my messages and open the gates, so to speak." 

 

xxx

 

It was roomy on the inside. Zhou Mi tilted his head back to look at the ceiling but it was lost in the gloom. They'd parked the ship in a spacious hangar just inside the planet, after Kyuhyun had assured him his friend had enough spare fuel for them to take off again. 

There were rooms, of a sort. Just not on any sort of appropriate scale. They were enormous. 

"A hollow planet! Isn't it great?!" An excited voice greeted them. 

"Amazing," Kyuhyun agreed, amusement evident in his voice. "Hello, Donghae. How've you been?" 

"I've been great! It's really good to see you again, Kyu. You should come by more often." Donghae pulled Kyuhyun in an enthusiastic hug and Kyuhyun returned it happily, arms wrapped tightly around the other. 

"Who's this?" Donghae asked when they pulled apart. 

"This is Zhou Mi, my..." Kyuhyun hesitated and Zhou Mi tensed. They were inside a mad scientist's hollow planet. He was pretty sure he could trust Kyuhyun by now, but Zhou Mi would be in a world of trouble if the word 'captor' was next. 

"Friend?" Kyuhyun concluded, looking at Zhou Mi for reassurance. Zhou Mi beamed at him. He felt relieved. Giddy from relief was a thing, he was pretty sure. Definitely a thing, he assured himself as he greeted Donghae cheerfully. 

Donghae led them to what looked like a living room slash inventor's shed slash crash site. It was at least less collossal than the other rooms.

"What this place needs," said Kyuhyun, wrinkling his nose, "is windows." 

"I'm working on a better ventilation system," Donghae assured him, clearing a couple of chairs of random debris. "But I keep getting distracted. There's such a lot to do..." 

Kyuhyun smiled and patted him on the back.

"Isn't there always?" Donghae smiled back, a little guiltily.

"What can I help you with?" he asked when enough clutter had been moved to sit down.

"CHI-9," said Kyuhyun. Zhou Mi had been watching Donghae for his reaction and he wasn't disappointed. Donghae's expression froze at the name.

"I saw your, um, your messages, of course," Donghae said, stumbling over his words. His gaze flickered to Zhou Mi. "But I don't know, what are you..." 

"Zhou Mi's trying to find it," Kyuhyun interrupted smoothly. "Apparently some bigshot is paying good money for it. Zhou Mi got me to help him because he thought I knew more. I can't really blame him because I do know a lot - but about this? Not really. It's quite the mystery, it seems. But I hoped you might be able to tell us something." 

Something was going on there, that much Zhou Mi could tell. A conversation of eyecontact and significant glances, rather than words. He wondered how far back Kyuhyun and Donghae went. They seemed to know each other well. 

He wondered if Kyuhyun knew as much as Donghae did, but didn't want to admit it. Not after they'd come this far, perhaps. When he wasn't intending to be helpful at all, at first, but just playing for time. 

He could forgive that deception, he thought. After all, he wouldn't have gotten to know Kyuhyun if they hadn't had these two weeks together and that... That had to count for something, somehow. He hoped. 

"I can't tell you what it is, exactly..." Donghae began slowly. 

"Because you don't know or because don't want to?" Zhou Mi asked sharply. "No one seems to know, but if no one did, then why the interest?"

Donghae shrugged.

"Maybe they just want to open the box to see what's inside. That's a very human thing, I suppose." 

Zhou Mi considered this. A human thing. More curiosity than self preservation.

"Like Pandora's box, you mean?" 

Donghae beamed, looking like he was about to applaud. 

"You know your Earth mythology! Yes, Pandora. The box that should never be opened." 

"You believe it's as dangerous as that?" 

Donghae bit his lip. 

"Ye-es," said he. "It should not be opened, I believe that. The CHI-9 should be hidden until people are ready." 

"How do you know when people are ready? We might be ready already. For whatever it is," Zhou Mi protested. 

"Ask yourself why you're looking for it," Donghae said with a faint smile. 

"Money," Kyuhyun answered for him, nudging his shoulder. "Don't lie. You're only doing this for the money." 

No, Zhou Mi wanted to argue. It's not just about the money, it's about the adventure, it's about winning, it's... about the money, yes, but money is never money for very long... In the end, he kept silent because Kyuhyun was right. It was his job and he did it in exchange for a lot of money. 

"You won't tell me where to find it?" he asked instead. Donghae sighed and got up from his chair, pacing the length of the room. He'd turned twice before he answered.

"I hear things, even living as remote as this. And Kyuhyun's messages kindly filled in the gaps. There are a lot of people on the move right now, looking for this Pandora's box. Why should I tell you, of all people?" 

Something in him squeezed tight at that because that meant he _knew_. He breathed deeply. 

Because Kyuhyun brought me here, would be the easy answer. And you trust Kyuhyun, I can see that much. I'd like to believe Kyuhyun trusts me, because he brought me to you. 

But why would he deserve their trust? 

"Right now there's only me," he started hesitantly. He wasn't sure where he was going with that. but he felt it was important. "My ship is dead, they're still trying to fix her, so my crew is stranded at Ko'Shi. I want to find it... I mean, I'll continue from here, not for money but out of curiosity. Too human, I suppose, but that's the best I can do. I want to see what's inside because no one in the universe seems to be able to tell me. And if it's too big for the universe to handle, I will put it back. And I'll make sure no one else will know." 

"It doesn't work that way," Donghae said, not unkindly. "Pandora, remember. Once it's opened, it can't be closed."

"We've come a long way since the time of Pandora." 

Donghae threw his head back and laughed.

"Millions and millions of lightyears. Wouldn't you like to know how many, exactly?" 

Kyuhyun stood up suddenly, his chair scraping the floor as it was pushed back. 

"Maybe we should go. We can't have you betraying your... philosophical ideals or whatever. We can find another way." 

"Oh, I don't know," Donghae said mildly. "If it's going to come out anyway, it might as well be now, it might as well be you." 

"But it's not..." Kyuhyun stopped. " I suppose you're right." He turned to Zhou Mi and smiled tightly. "I'm coming with you, just so you know."

"I wouldn't want to do it without you." 

"Are you sure? Because I'm going to hold you to your word," said Kyuhyun. He said it with vehemence and that, more than anything, made Zhou Mi want to peek inside this Pandora's box. To know what it was that lit the fire in Kyuhyun's eyes and to share in that knowledge. 

"Go to the Exoplanet. When you get there, further directions are in here. " Donghae tossed him a thin square. Zhou Mi turned it over. There was a tiny black screen on the other side. 

"How does this work?" Zhou Mi asked, running his fingers across the screen and over the edges. Donghae winked.

"Kyuhyun will show you." 

Zhou Mi hoped he would, glancing at Kyuhyun who was quietly fuming at Donghae. He pocketed the thing for now. They'd have plenty of time for that later, if they had to go all the way to the Exoplanet. 

 

xxx

 

"You could just tell me," Zhou Mi tried when they were back on the Juliet, leaving the hollow planet behind them. 

"Tell you what?" 

"What the CHI-9 is. You know, don't you?" 

"I don't know anything," Kyuhyun claimed. "Why would I bother taking you all the way to Donghae if I could have just told you instead?" 

"Then why don't you want me to find it, not really?" 

"I don't mind you finding it, whatever it is." He hesitated. "You thought it was a weapon? There are plenty of weapons to go around. If you're right, this would be one to rule the universe. I'm not too happy about something like that falling into President Lee's hands, I know that much." 

"I guess you're right. I meant what I said. If it really is something like that, we'll hide it or destroy it... We'll see what we can do, yeah?" 

"Good. Now that I've once again convinced you of my innocence, let's get on our way to the Exoplanet. I've entered the coordinates." 

Zhou Mi nodded, checking all the dials and screens. "We're good to go. Sit back and relax, because this is going to take a while. It's four weeks to the Exoplanet and that'll be using all the shortcuts I know." 

 

xxx

 

Kyuhyun looked up. He'd been curled up in a chair playing with a tablet computer. 

"Hey. Taking a break? Will she be okay on autopilot? I don't know this area as well as the route to the hollow planet." 

Zhou Mi nodded.

"I need to sleep eventually, anyway. I've chosen a quiet stretch of space to leave her. It should be fine for the next few hours." He yawned. "Then there's a meteor belt we need to cross, I'll need to be alert for that. There are alarms should anything happen before that." 

He sat down next to Kyuhyun, stretching his legs out in front of him and leaning back, closing his eyes. 

"It makes me realize anew why ships have large crews, though, despite all the computers. It's doable on your own but I already feel like I could sleep for a week." 

He could hear Kyuhyun chuckle. 

"Sleep then. I may not be able to fly a ship, but I'll wake you if the alarms go off." 

He didn't mean to fall asleep in the chair, his bed wasn't far away and far more comfortable, but he only managed to hum in response before he sank into darkness.

When he woke up again there was a warm weight against his side. He opened his eyes and blearily looked down at unruly brown hair. He snorted. Kyuhyun, ever watchful, had fallen asleep on his shoulder. He shifted his weight to get more comfortable and rested his cheek against the soft mop of hair. This was quite nice, he thought sleepily, listening to Kyuhyun's even breathing. A smaller ship would be more convenient, easier to control, but it wasn't that bad, with the two of them. Of course he missed his crew and he despaired of ever figuring Kyuhyun out but... Maybe Kyuhyun could stay with him when all this was over. Stay with the Anna. They could use someone like him and maybe Zhou Mi could teach him how to fly her... He could feel sleep pulling at him again. The alarm would be loud enough to wake them, he wasn't worried about that, but he should really.... get to... a bed.... 

 

xxx

 

He waited until they were out of the meteor belt to take the little square computer to Kyuhyun. 

He found Kyuhyun hiding in the mess hall. He'd been more awkward around Zhou Mi ever since he'd fallen asleep on him. Zhou Mi thought this was both cute and hilarious, reactions that didn't help Kyuhyun's embarrassment. 

"Are you just here to tease me again?" he asked suspiciously, regarding Zhou Mi over the top of a large portable screen Zhou Mi had never seen before.

"Not at all." He grinned brightly and took a seat next to Kyuhyun. He resisted temptation, though, despite Kyuhyun's cheeks already flushing pink. They looked perfectly pinchable, Zhou Mi thought. He should tell Kyuhyun that one of these days, when he didn't need a computer explained to him. 

"Where did you get that?" he asked, nodding at the screen. Kyuhyun shrugged.

"Someone's room. Whoever it is has really nice things. I've decided they're mine now." 

"What about this one?" Zhou Mi took the square out of his pocket and turned over in his hands.

"Oh. That one." Kyuhyun put the screen aside. "It's pretty simple. A pretty simple machine, I mean. It's not connected to anything else, can't connect to anything else which is the whole point of it, and just stores small amounts of data. But they're hard to get into, passwords, encryptions, the works."

"But you know how to get in?" Zhou Mi asked. He knew Kyuhyun was good, of course, had seen enough evidence of that, but was Donghae even better? Kyuhyun raised his eyebrows.

"What do you think? Of course I can, I'm the one who locked them in the first place." 

He was watching Kyuhyun fiddling with the device, long fingers dancing across the screen, when there was a sudden loud, booming crash and the ship lurched. A dozen sirens all went off at the same time. Kyuhyun looked up in alarm.

"I didn't do anything!" 

Zhou Mi had already rushed off to the control room, struggling to run and holding himself up by the walls when the ship was hit again. 

He slid into the pilot seat just in time for a particularly damaging hit. More alarm bells were going off. Several parts of the ship were already damaged enough to be unusable, the violently flickering screens were telling him. Kyuhyun, where was Kyuhyun? He frantically grabbed the controls. He needed to get them out of here as fast as possible first. 

"What's happening?" Kyuhyun yelled as he stumbled into the control room. The ship lurched again and things were falling apart around them.

"We're under attack. I'm trying to outpace them but they're fast." 

"Can we shoot back?" Kyuhyun asked, dropping down into the chair next to Zhou Mi. 

"I can't. I can't fly and shoot at the same time." 

Kyuhyun stared at the rapidly blinking screens in front of him, eyes wide. 

"It's that console." Zhou Mi pointed without taking his eyes off his own controls. 

"Right. Okay. I can figure this out, no problem. Just, try to give me one extra moment." 

Zhou Mi nodded, slamming down several more levers.

"I'm giving everything's she's got," he shouted over the noise of another explosion. "She can't keep up this speed for long but we're outrunning them now! Make it be enough!" 

"I'm working on it." He desperately darted his fingers over the weapon controls. "Why are they shooting at us?" 

"It's the Athena. Last I heard, they were after the CHI-9 as well." 

"I told you this thing was dangerous," Kyuhyun muttered desperately to himself. 

"Kyuhyun? It needs to be now." 

"Right." These controls were too confusing, especially with the ship scresming in his ear. He closed his eyes and took a shuddering breath. Then he pushed all the buttons at once. 

 

xxx

 

They didn't so much land at the Exoplanet as crash.

"I'm never letting you near any weaponry ever again," said Zhou Mi. He sagged in his chair, resting his face on his folded arms. He was exhausted.

"I got rid of them." Zhou Mi turned and watched as Kyuhyun attempted to wipe the sweat from his face with soot covered hands. 

"I didn't know about the shockwave," Kyuhyun continued. "I'm sorry." 

They sat in exhausted silence.

"I didn't even know the Juliet _had_ rockets like that," said Zhou Mi after a while. 

"Yeah. Who knew I had the means to start a small interplanetary war at my fingertips." 

Kyuhyun started laughing, increasingly desperately, and Zhou Mi looked up. This was the kind of laughter you'd die of. He scooted over and put his arms around Kyuhyun. The other leaned into him and the laughter turned into sobs, wracking his body. 

"Ssh, it's okay. It's okay. We're okay. We got out of there alive thanks to you. And we're here. We've landed where we should be. We're still in one piece. We're going to get some sleep and tomorrow we'll see what we can find." 

He drew soothing circles on Kyuhyun's back until the other calmed down. 

"I'm sorry I dragged you into this when you're the one who warned me it was dangerous," he said quietly.

Kyuhyun puffed out his cheeks.

"It's okay. I was in trouble already, might as well go all out and get it over with." 

Zhou Mi snorted. 

"Sounds like a good philosophy. Only getting it over with never seems to happen. If you're okay, let's gather our things and get out of here. I think our days on the Juliet are over."

"Can I take the big screen with me?" 

"Only if you carry it yourself." 

 

xxx

 

"So this is the Exoplanet." 

They wandered around the next morning, refreshed after a long night's sleep and a hot shower. They were still in search for breakfast. 

"You've never been before?" Zhou Mi asked.

"No. Never had a reason before, I guess. And it's pretty off course. Do you know it well?" he added hesitantly.

"Pretty well. I've spent some time here. Why do you ask?" 

Kyuhyun sighed, wringing his hands.

"I have... bad news."

Zhou Mi stopped in his tracks. "Don't tell me. Donghae's device?" 

"Turns out it's not explosion proof," Kyuhyun said glumly. 

"But you saw it right? Just before? You looked like you had it just before the explosion hit." 

"I did. For a second? Then I dropped it in surprise. I know we're in the right city now at least? I don't know why anyone would name a city Tears of the Unicorn, but it does stick in the mind. The rest? I can't for the life of me remember. Maybe we could ask around. But it's a big city, it'll still be trying to find a needle in a haystack." 

"We were so close." Zhou Mi balled his fists in frustration. "Just for a second, we actually had it." 

"Maybe we should give up," Kyuhyun said glumly.

"After all this?"

"I'm just afraid the next time people shoot me they'll actually hit. Maybe..." he trailed off.

"Maybe what?"

"Maybe we can find another adventure. The two of us. With a bit less weaponry involved. It'd be fun. And you said you weren't doing this for the money anymore." 

"I can't just let this go now," Zhou Mi said apologetically. "Not yet. Stick with me through this a little while longer? I'll even buy you breakfast," he added, spotting a cafe ahead of them. 

"Somehow, I don't think this is a fair deal." 

"With extra deep fried stuff?" Zhou Mi smiled winningly. Kyuhyun rolled his eyes, but there was a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"Fine, have it your way. You better be permanently glued to my sickbed if I get shot." 

"I'll wait on you hand and foot," Zhou Mi promised, laughing as he opened the door of the cafe. 

 

xxx

 

There were some people he could talk to around here, make inquiries. If they were close enough to the source, information should be more freely available.

"You can't contact Donghae over the 'net?" he'd asked over breakfast. Kyuhyun had shaken his head wordlessly, mouth full of deep fried goodness.

"Can't be done," he'd said eventually. "I told you he was mad, right? Paranoia. You can't get through that planet shell unless you're right on top of it. And even then only if you know how." 

"The universe is not making things easy for us." Zhou Mi had sighed, tearing off a piece of bread. 

"Let's head for the south side of the city," Zhou Mi suggested when they were standing outside again. "Someone I used to work with lives there. He might have heard something. It's not too far. We can walk it from here." 

"Lead the way. Just walk slowly, please." 

Zhou Mi laughed. "I could always just roll you down the hill."

"Ha ha, very funny." 

He slung an arm around Kyuhyun.

"I do try."

"Please don't anymore." 

Zhou Mi tutted. "So harsh." 

They'd been walking for a quarter of an hour when Kyuhyun nudged him. He grabbed Zhou Mi's arm so he could pull him close, and down to his height. He leaned in, lips brushing Zhou Mi's ear.

"Someone's following us," he murmured. "They're trying to be subtle about it but they're failing quite badly."

"I don't know how subtle this is, either." Zhou Mi gestured at the both of them and his own stooped position. "You might have just told me."

"I don't know how many of them there are," Kyuhyun hissed back. "And they don't look like nice people." He yanked Zhou Mi down again and leaned back in, planting a kiss on his cheek with a loud smack.

"There. We're incredibly covert now. Busy with other things entirely."

"There was no need for that!" Zhou Mi could feel his cheeks heat. There was no need for that either, he thought. It's not like it was anywhere near a real kiss. Though imagining that did nothing for his temperature and he should really stop. 

"Tough luck." 

They ducked into the next alley they passed. They waited with baited breath but whoever was following them was staying behind.

"Is this a thing on the Exoplanet, or is this about the CHI-9 again?" Kyuhyun whispered.

"CHI-9, definitely. Well, probably. 50-50 chance of stalkers here most days, but with our luck it'll be about the CHI-9. Those guys looked dangerous."

"I didn't expect it to actually be a thing," Kyuhyun mumbled. "Listen, this friend of yours, do you think he knows anything?" 

"I hope so. If anyone around here does, he will. Or he'll know who to ask instead." 

"Then go see him. I'll play interference with whoever wants the data for themselves _this time_."

Zhou Mi frowned. He wouldn't like to be followed to Yesung's place, that was for sure, but he didn't like this solution either. 

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" he asked doubtfully. 

"I'll be fine. I have actually practiced with this gun the past few weeks, it's not like I don't know what I'm doing. I won't let them get near me," he promised, smiling gently. Zhou Mi nodded but made no move to leave yet.

"I just don't like leaving you alone out here." It wasn't like he didn't believe Kyuhyun could take care of himself. It was just... He preferred to have him near. 

"I don't like it any more than you do. But the faster we get to this damn data, the faster this will all be over." 

"Right." Zhou Mi swallowed. "Give me your bag, in case you have to run." Kyuhyun handed over the bulky bag. He'd smuggled out the big screen he'd found on the Juliet and heaven knew what else. Rocks, possibly, Zhou Mi thought. He watched Kyuhyun take out his gun, the one Zhou Mi had given him from out of the shuttle. 

On impulse, he stepped forward, closing his hand around Kyuhyun's wrist. Kyuhyun looked up in surprise and Zhou Mi leaned in, brushing their lips together. It was only the briefest contact before he stumbled back again. Kyuhyun's eyes were wide, his tongue darted out to wet his lips.

"I'm sorry I just..." 

Kyuhyun shook his head, and this time he was the one who leaned in, curling his fingers in Zhou Mi's shirt to pull him down to him. Kyuhyun's lips were so soft, his mouth hot and wet. Zhou Mi tangled his hands in the other's hair, angling his head to deepen the kiss. They clung together desperately. Kyuhyun made small gasping noises and he felt like melting against him. 

They pulled apart again reluctantly, Kyuhyun resting his forehead on Zhou Mi's shoulder. Zhou Mi had wrapped his arms around Kyuhyun's waist, keeping him close.

"I should go," Kyuhyun said, not quite meeting his eyes. "I don't know if the hotel is safe. I'll meet you at the cafe we had breakfast at in an hour or two, yeah?" Zhou Mi nodded wordlessly, dropping his arms when Kyuhyun wriggled out of them.

Kyuhyun finally looked up and grinned. It was infectious and Zhou Mi couldn't help but smile back. He still felt warm all over.

"See you in a bit. Make sure your friend tells you something useful." Kyuhyun slipped back out of the alley, phaser gun at the ready. 

 

xxx

 

He walked the rest of the way to Yesung's as fast as he could, only keeping himself from running to avoid drawing attention to himself. He was almost there when he miscalculated a turn and bashed his side into a wall. It was the arm he'd been carrying Kyuhyun's bag in and with an awful sound, the overstuffed bag split at the seam, the contents clattering on the ground. 

He cursed loudly and quickly kneeled down to gather everything. It wouldn't do to have high tech stuff lying around in this neighborhood. He inspected everything he picked up, hoping against hope nothing was broken. He winced when he saw there was a big crack right across the big portable screen. At least it would save weight? He put it to one side and went to pick up the rest. He blinked. Among the other things there was a small black square. He picked it up. He hadn't known Kyuhyun had brought it with them.

He sat down on the edge of the sidewalk, turning it over and over in his hands. The casing had survived the explosion intact. So close. They'd been so close. 

He ran his index finger over the pressure points on the side. He'd seen Kyuhyun unlock it back on the Juliet. Zhou Mi wouldn't be able to do anything about the encryptions anyway, but he at least learned how it could be turned on. He shook it experimentally. It was a prototype, right? Fixed up by a mad scientist. Maybe a wire had come loose. If Yesung had no leads, they could try and take this to get fixed. 

He wondered how many times Kyuhyun had tried turning it on, if it was still in his bag. He could imagine Kyuhyun, frown of concentration on his face, trying again and again... Zhou Mi pressed the buttons in order.

And almost dropped the device when the screen lit up. 

He stared at it. Taking up the entire miniature screen, the only information that was stored on the device, was a code. The address? Where was Kyuhyun when he needed him? Zhou Mi felt like his heart was beating out of his chest. He gathered up the rest of Kyuhyun's things, stuffing them in his own bag as well as he could. Then he turned around, walking back the way he came. 

Kyuhyun hadn't arrived yet when he returned to the cafe. He took a table and ordered tea, taking his time to study the message more closely. He was bad with codes, but it didn't look like an address to him. He rubbed his eyes. He hoped it wasn't just an error message and that he'd gotten his hopes up for nothing. He could just see Kyuhyun's face now... 

He sat up. Maybe he'd better make sure before Kyuhyun got here. He copied the code and messaged Henry. Someone on the crew might know. It didn't take long for the device to beep with a reply.

Heard how, Zhou Mi wondered, but he guessed he shouldn't underestimate both his crew and the Ko'Shi area for getting information fast. 

 

xxx

 

Kyuhyun arrived just when Zhou Mi was starting to get seriously worried. Zhou Mi eyed him critically. He looked a little worse for wear but not seriously injured. 

"They wanted the data, sure enough." Kyuhyun ignored the chair on the opposite side of the table and squeezed himself on the bench next to Zhou Mi. "They weren't very violent, thank heaven, but they were kind of scary. There was this short one that just kept glaring at me. It seems they had some sort of deal with the crew of the Juliet? That's why they were following us. I managed to distract them and lead them to the other end of the city, though. I didn't even have to shoot anyone, which was a bit of a shame since I'd been practicing. What did your friend say?" 

Zhou Mi hesitated.

"I didn't go to see him." 

"What? Why not?" Did some of the little brats follow you after all? I tried to keep my eye on them but there were a lot of them."

"No. Although, incidentally, if I'd known there were more than one or two people I'd never have let you go. No, it was because of this." He put Donghae's device on the table in front of him, screen lit up. Kyuhyun stared, wide eyes going from the device to Zhou Mi and back.

"What? How did you..?"

"Your bag was too heavy and it ripped. I found this between your things. I hadn't realized you'd kept it. Were you trying to fix it?" 

Kyuhyun was still transfixed by the device.

"Yes? Yes. I was. But I wasn't having any luck. I didn't tell you about it because I didn't want you to get your hopes up in case it didn't work out. It's something Donghae made, after all. Normal rules don't apply. What did you do with it?" 

"I just copied what you did to turn in on back on the Juliet. And it worked." Kyuhyun reached out to poke the device with one finger. 

"Huh." 

"Maybe dropping it did the trick." He hesitated. "You told me it was an address?" 

"Yes? Look, this part's the city code. The rest doesn't mean anything to me, though. Maybe Donghae tricked us." 

"No. I contacted Henry." Kyuhyun looked up in surprise at that. "It's not an address, it's a ship that's docked here. We just have to find it. There should be a record of them, though." 

Kyuhyun groaned.

"Not another ship. I've had enough of the damn things. Why send us here if we have to take another ship? It must be wrong." 

"Sorry. I've had Henry see if he can track where the ship is so we can check it out."

"I could have done that!" Kyuhyun protested. 

"I know. But they're still stuck at Ko'Shi so he must be about to pass out with boredom. And while he's doing that I thought we might... take the evening off?" he suggested. Kyuhyun raised an eyebrow and Zhou Mi laughed in embarrassment. 

"Was that supposed to sound suggestive?" Kyuhyun asked.

"No!" Zhou Mi protested. "I just thought we could do something fun. You've never been here before, after all. There are better things to do here than chasing people with guns." 

"Alright," Kyuhyun agreed. "You have my attention. Do your worst." 

Zhou Mi cheered. "I'll give you the greatest introduction to Exoplanet life, trust me."

"I'm sure. I've never had a first date on a strange planet before," said Kyuhyun slyly. Zhou Mi blushed and looked away.

"I don't know. Does it count as a first date when we've been stuck together for weeks?" 

Kyuhyun shrugged.

"I guess blowing things up makes for a nice date too, but it didn't involve any kissing so, yeah, this counts." 

"Will there be a lot of kissing then?" Zhou Mi asked with a smile.

"Heaps," Kyuhyun promised.

 

xxx

 

Zhou Mi woke up the next morning warm and half underneath Kyuhyun. Things hadn't moved beyond kissing last night, but Kyuhyun had never bothered to move back to his own bed, preferring to wrap himself around Zhou Mi. He was a clingy sleeper, Zhou Mi thought, managing to extract one arm. He ran a hand through Kyuhyun's tousled hair and leaned in to kiss his nose.

"Wake up, sleepyhead." Kyuhyun replied with something that sounded suspiciously like mumblemumblemurmle. Zhou Mi snorted and reached over Kyuhyun to grab a tablet from beside the bed. He lay back and Kyuhyun settled back against him, his breathing evening out again while Zhou Mi checked the device for messages. 

He'd received several messages from Henry during the night. The first six were just to tell him to do his dirty work himself from now on and why he'd brought Kyuhyun in the first place. Zhou Mi chuckled and pressed a kiss to the top of Kyuhyun's head. 

The last message, however, was a name and location. 

"The Fish," Zhou Mi read, raising his eyebrows. "What a name for a ship." 

Kyuhyun hummed sleepily. "'s dumb. Now come back to sleep." 

Zhou Mi laughed. He put the tablet away and sat up, kissing Kyuhyun on the mouth before moving to the bathroom.

"Hurry and wake up!" he called out while he started running the shower. "We have a mystery to unravel." 

 

xxx

 

"It's quite a nice little ship," Zhou Mi.commented when they'd found it. With Henry's help, it had thankfully been an easy trip there. Kyuhyun looked at it blearily.

"No, it isn't," he grumbled. 

"I wasn't expecting a ferry service. But it makes things easier, I suppose. One set course. Generally they just jump through one wormhole and set you down on the other side."

Kyuhyun yawned. "Sounds dangerous. I don't trust wormholes." 

"Um. There's a sign on the door?" Zhou Mi said hesitantly as he approached the ship. Space ships didn't usually leave signs on the door.

"What does it say?" 

"Um. 'Out. Back tomorrow.'"

"You're serious. Well, I guess we'll just have to..." he stopped, tilting his head as he considered Zhou Mi.

"You're thinking of stealing the ship, aren't you?"

"No!"

"You're thinking of stealing a ship. Again."

"I'm not!" 

"And you dared call me a criminal."

"... It isn't stealing. We'll just borrow it. We'll pop over to wherever it goes, take a look around, put it back before they'll even notice it's missing."

"We can't do that! 

"Did it before," Zhou Mi said stubbornly.

"That was a life or death situation! And anyway, we never put it back. We crashed it in a field." 

"Doesn't change the fact that you can do it. You can take over an entire ship just like _that_."

Kyuhyun started to argue but stopped. "Why are you so desperate to go now?" he asked suspiciously. "Where's the harm in waiting a day? You could show me some more of the sights, enjoy ourselves."

Zhou Mi took a deep breath. No. It needed to be now. "Because I'd rather it's just the two of us. No ferryman or other strangers. Just us."

"This is hardly a romantic getaway."

"It's not. But after all this and all your protests, would you trust _them_ with whatever we'll find."

"No." Kyuhyun sighed. "Of course not." 

"Good. Then let's get going." 

"By the way," Kyuhyun said conversationally as they climbed aboard, "if you have a bondage kink or whatever you might have just told me, instead of pretending to be all holier-than-thou and arresting me."

"Kyuhyun!" 

 

xxx

 

"We're approaching the wormhole." 

Zhou Mi glanced to his side. He reached out when he saw Kyuhyun's hand strayed towards a console, taking it and linking their fingers. He'd been watching for it or he would never have noticed. In some ways, Kyuhyun really was sneaky. 

Kyuhyun looked up at him questioningly. Zhou Mi smiled gently.

"Do you trust me?" 

"Trust you? What kind of question is that? I... I guess so, yes. Yes. I trust you."

"Good." Zhou Mi squeezed his hand. "Good."

He held tight onto Kyuhyun's hand until they reached the wormhole and were pulled through. 

 

xxx

 

Silence. That was his first impression of the other side. He felt disoriented for a moment until he realized it was emptiness he was seeing. There was one planet on the right side of the screen. It shone a brilliant blue. Zhou Mi glanced at the ship's scanners. A planet covered in water? And far away, its sun. Otherwise, it was blackness. 

He looked to Kyuhyun, who was staring at the screen in silence. Their hands were still linked between them. 

"This is it, isn't it?" Zhou Mi whispered. Kyuhyun nodded silently.  
Zhou Mi scanned the planet until he found a place to land. They weren't spoilt for choice; there seemed to be only one structure on this planet of water. Zhou Mi's hands were shaking when he brought the Fish down. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been this nervous. He'd been expecting the data to be on the Exoplanet, not an unknown planet in the middle of nowhere. Though it was fitting, he guessed. A mystery wrapped in a mystery hidden away on a mysterious planet.

"How the hell was there a ferry service to this place?" he burst out. Kyuhyun shook his head.

"There probably wasn't, before today. Donghae moves in mysterious ways."

"Yes but..." he stopped and turned slowly. "Donghae?"

Kyuhyun face flushed.

"I mean, he sent us on this wild goose chase so..." 

Zhou Mi didn't buy it. Kyuhyun had let on more than he'd intended there. 

"Donghae is that deeply involved?" he pressed. "Did he create the data?" 

"What? No. I mean, I don't think so. I don't know," Kyuhyun whined. "You think I know but I've never been here either. I'm as confused as you are."

"Right. Right. Let's go, shall we."

They climbed down out of the Fish onto white stone, warmed by the sun. For the first time, Zhou Mi could see the building properly. 

"It's a... church?" he said hesitantly. Kyuhyun tilted his head.

"I guess? It has spires and things. Though I would have gone for 'city', purely based on size." 

"Maybe it's a castle!" Zhou Mi looked up in awe as they came closer. "I've read about them."

"I don't think they were ever this big either," Kyuhyun said vaguely. "Do you think anyone's here at all?" 

"I'm not sure. It's very quiet. Be careful, yeah?" 

They walked underneath an immense archway until they reached a courtyard of some sort. Across from them was a gate, closed by heavy doors twenty feet high. They stared.

"There's a side door over there," Kyuhyun said after a few moments. "It's actually people sized. Let's take that one." 

Zhou Mi nodded, still looking at the main gate. "Sapphire Blue Palace," he read. 

"Hmmm?"

"The text above the gate. Sapphire Blue Palace. I guess it's a palace, then. Though it certainly isn't blue. I would have named it the white palace," he added, looking around.

"The sea maybe. For all we know it's the sapphire blue ocean, or whatever and they named the palace after it." 

"I suppose..." Zhou Mi tapped his bottom lip in thought. "It still sounds kind of dumb."

"I never said it didn't." Kyuhyun had walked ahead and tried the handle of the smaller door. It swung open easily under his touch. "Coming?" 

The inside appeared empty of people as well, and the marble floor rang like a bell with every step they took. 

"Doesn't look like anyone's home," Kyuhyun muttered. 

"I'd rather someone would try to stop us, almost. You can fight people. This is just creepy."

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe whoever lived here just moved to dryer climates. We could claim it. Our very own giant sized palace we wouldn't know what to do with."

"You could certainly throw a hell of a party," Zhou Mi admitted. Kyuhyun laughed, the sound echoing through the hall.

They found a large room, sparsely furnished, at the end of the hall. A number of other doors opened up in it.

"Now what?"

"Where would I hide if I was a highly protected data module?"

"Maybe we should split up," Kyuhyun suggested, looking doubtfully at the many doors. 

"I don't know..." He didn't want to split up, not in this place. On the other hand, he also didn't want to be here for another week.

"I'll shout out if something's wrong? We should be able to hear wherever some commotion's going on, in this silence. Though hopefully we'll be done and out of here before the owners return."

Zhou Mi nodded. "We'll both take a direction. Meet back here in half an hour?" 

Kyuhyun nodded. "I'll take this one. See you in a bit. And don't open the damn box without me." 

 

xxx

 

Zhou Mi had been walking for almost a quarter of an hour with no sign of anything. He'd have to turn back soon, he thought. Hopefully Kyuhyun was having more luck. 

Just then, he came upon a staircase. He looked it up and down, biting his lip. He'd just take a quick look upstairs, then, before heading back. 

The room at the top of the stairs was small, for the standards of the palace, and again had several doors opening into it. How did anyone find their way in this place? He spun around slowly, trying to decide what to do. 

"Welcome," said a warm voice behind him and Zhou Mi froze, his heart racing. Should he turn around? Grab his gun? Would he be fast enough? Whoever was behind him might already be aiming a weapon at him. He'd never even heard the man approach.

"Don't worry," the visitor continued, picking up on his tension. "I don't often find people wandering here, but I enjoy having visitors. I'm sorry I wasn't there to meet you at the gate."

Zhou Mi turned slowly. The man smiled and bowed.

"I'm the head of the Sapphire Blue order and the keeper of the palace keys," he introduced himself. "Choi Siwon."

"Zhou Mi." He returned the bow awkwardly. "A pleasure to meet you. I'm sorry I just walked in but..." 

"No problem," Siwon interrupted smoothly. "Please, follow me. Perhaps some tea? I can show you around the palace later, if you'd like. We don't get many visitors these days, but those who do come are always very impressed by the architecture."

Zhou Mi nodded, trailing behind Siwon. He didn't know how genuine the man was, or in how much danger he currently was, but right now the only thing he could do was go along with it. And if everything went horribly wrong, at least Kyuhyun would still be safe. 

Siwon led him to an obviously more lived in part of the palace, less stark white, more rugs and furniture. And tea.

He accepted the proffered cup and Siwon sat down across from him. 

"A religious order?" Zhou Mi asked his host after a careful sip. "The Sapphire Blue order, I mean."

Siwon nodded. "Of a sort, of a sort." He smiled. "We work so that one day mankind can return to paradise. I suppose you could call it religious." 

Zhou Mi nodded. It certainly sounded religious to him. So... the CHI-9 data was protected by a religious order? He really, desperately hoped it didn't turn out to be some kind of evidence of God. Weapons of mass destruction would possibly be less dangerous. He sipped his tea absentmindedly while his mind was in turmoil. Should he just ask? He might as well, probably. It didn't look like he was ever going to find the damn thing. He took a deep breath.

"I came here in search of something," he started hesitantly. His eyes flickered upwards but Siwon's face only showed polite interest. He pressed on. "It's called CHI-9. I'm sure it's kept here. I came to see it. And to make sure it's safe. I don't know if you hear much of what goes on beyond these walls, but a lot of people are suddenly very interested in it. You might have a lot of visitors very soon." 

Siwon scratched his head, still smiling.

"I don't know why they would come here, I'm afraid. CHI-9, you say? I've never heard of the thing, I'm sorry to say." 

Siwon tried. Zhou Mi would certainly award him points for effort, but he had been around better liars. Time for his trump card.

"Donghae sent me," he tried. Siwon shook his head.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you." 

Zhou Mi shook his head and tried a smile. "Not at all. Forget I mentioned it. Would you still show me around this place?" he asked pleasantly. "I'd hate to have come all this way for nothing." 

In this giant maze of a place, it shouldn't be too hard to slip away, after all. 

"Of course! Let us begin up in the tower. It has a very good view." 

As Zhou Mi got up to follow Siwon, he wondered which part of the palace would be the furthest removed from the tower. Would there be a basement? Worth looking into, he told himself, as he pasted an interested smile on his face. 

They'd walked to the east wing of the palace and were about to start their ascend, when Zhou Mi saw his chance to slip away in an unseen direction- and blew it, because in the moment that Siwon had climbed the first steps, Zhou Mi had looked up and seen the flash of a gun among the robes and hesitated a second too long. Siwon saw him stare. He'd quickly straightened his robes again but it was too late. 

Zhou Mi dashed off into the corridor to his right. He could hear Siwon shouting over the blood pounding in his ears but he ignored him. He needed to get away as fast as he could. He turned at the earliest corner, skidding over the slippery floors. Corners were good. Running long straight stretches was a perfect way to get shot in the back. 

He had no idea where he was anymore but right now his only goal was to get as far away as possible. And down. He raced down every staircase he came across until he was gasping for breath, stitches in his side. You'd think they'd have a damn elevator in a place this size, he thought crossly. He'd never seen this many staircases in one place. 

He was still disoriented but he must have gotten to basement level, at least. There were no more windows, the only light on the walls was weak and artificial. There had been no sight or sound of anyone for quite a while. No Siwon, for which he was grateful, but no Kyuhyun either. His chest felt tight with worry about Kyuhyun. He hoped he hadn't run into Siwon instead.

And dared to hope, in the back of his mind, that he was somewhere near here, waiting with the CHI-9 data in his hands, scowling because Zhou Mi was taking so long. 

It was unlikely, but it was a nice thought to have. 

It was getting darker and darker, until he had to inch forward, one hand against the rough stone wall to guide him. The air was oppressive here. He had no idea how long he'd been walking. It felt like hours. 

At long last, he arrived at a doorway. Light was shining from the gap under the door. He held his breath as he moved forward. He was too far down for it to be daylight, but it was bright - brighter than any of the artificial lightening that had illuminated his path. 

The door wasn't locked. He let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

There was a platform in the middle of the room. On it, a black cube, small enough to hold in both his hands. 

He could carry it, he thought. That might be the best way, take it with him to show to Kyuhyun. Though it would be easiest if he could only look at it now - leave it in the care of the order. Was it a computer? he wondered, as he picked it up. Leaving it here might be safest but he would need Kyuhyun to get through the protective encryptions that were undoubtedly there. 

There was only one button, on the side of the cube. He debated for a while. It might be a really dumb thing to do but - he squeezed his eyes shut and pushed it.

He opened his eyes again when it remained silent, limbs relaxing from pure relief. And his eyes widened - dots and lines of pure light shimmered in the air. The cube was a projector? His eyes traced the shapes above him.

"A map?" A map to where? He remembered Siwon's word. A map to paradise? That would be... 

There was a sound behind him and he whirled around, cube clutched in his hands. 

A wide eyed Kyuhyun burst through the door. He stopped in his tracks when he saw Zhou Mi. 

Zhou Mi laughed in relief. 

"Kyuhyun! We found it!" he rushed forward, hugging Kyuhyun close to him with one arm. Kyuhyun sagged against him, Zhou Mi could feel him sigh. 

"You actually did it," he muttered into the fabric of Zhou Mi's shirt. "At some point I was just curious how far you'd get. You actually made it." 

Zhou Mi kissed Kyuhyun's cheek. "You helped too." He was smiling widely in pure excitement. 

"It's not a weapon, Kyu! It's a map! And I'm so glad you're here. You're safe! And we can look at it together."

"A map?" 

Zhou Mi nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, look. I know these stars." He put the cube down on the middle of the floor, pulling Kyuhyun with him as he traced the map through the room. "That's the Exoplanet... and Mu'Ho over here. Oh! Mars Two and the old colonies are there..." Zhou Mi fell silent. The map went on and on, far beyond charted space. Further than he'd heard people or probes had ever ventured. Was there even anything there? 

"Where does this go?" he murmured. 

"Far beyond where I'd want to travel," Kyuhyun said practically. "Look how close the old colonies and the Exoplanet are on this map."

"We could find out. Follow the map," Zhou Mi said breathlessly.

"What? No way. Have you been listening to me? Anyway, you promised. We're leaving it here. And we'll lock the damn door behind us." 

"But it doesn't look dangerous." Zhou Mi pouted.

"Of course it looks dangerous. Who knows what the hell is waiting for us there?" 

"Mankind isn't ready." 

Zhou Mi jumped at the voice from behind him. Kyuhyun made a strangled noise and grabbed Zhou Mi's arm.

Siwon held out his hand. "Return it, please. You've found it. You've satisfied your curiosity. And Donghae's as well, incidentally. I'll have a word with him about that." His eyes flickered to Kyuhyun. "I will hide it again, make sure it's better protected." 

"I haven't satisfied anything," Zhou Mi protested. "I still don't know why it's so important. _I_ 'm ready to know. What is it? This whole thing... This wasn't a game to me," he finished tiredly. 

It was bad timing, that's what it came down to. When Zhou Mi didn't step away from the box, Siwon reached for his gun in desperation. But Zhou Mi had had more practice.

He was a lot faster.

Kyuhyun made a sound between a gasp and a sob, taking a step towards the fallen man. 

"Did you - What did you? - Is he..?" 

"No. No, I just stunned him. He'll be fine," Zhou Mi assured him, picking up the cube. "We should get out of here while we can, Kyu. We can figure out what to do with this thing later. If we decide not to go, we can always..." 

Kyuhyun had knelt down next to Siwon, checking his pulse to make sure. He stood up again slowly.

"I'm sorry, Zhou Mi. I'm really sorry." He raised his gun slowly. Zhou Mi's eyes widened in alarm. No. He'd wanted so badly to be able to trust Kyuhyun. He took a step towards him, reaching out desperately. 

"Kyuhyun? Don't..." 

Kyuhyun took the shot. 

Zhou Mi gasped as he stumbled backwards. He dropped the cube on the floor. It was destroyed. The phaser beam had fried it. 

Zhou Mi felt frozen. He stared at Kyuhyun, who stared back like a deer caught in the headlights, the hand holding the gun limply by his side. 

"I was going to stop you sooner," Kyuhyun said, voice thick. "I really was. I think? But..."

Zhou Mi laughed like he wanted to cry, sagging against the wall. Kyuhyun took a step towards him but Zhou Mi stumbled back.

"I know," he said. "I didn't want to think about it but I think I knew, that it was your secret. In the end, I mostly wanted to find it to know about you. I thought if I got this far, you'd share your secret." 

He really had, that Kyuhyun would sit beside him and smile, and show him everything. 

Kyuhyun was crying. Or maybe he was. The dank air was making it hard to breathe. He'd wanted to find whatever stupid thing it was and watch as the smile would reach Kyuhyun's eyes because his secret was out now and they could finally, finally talk. 

"It's not as simple as that. It's not my secret to share." Kyuhyun's voice was carefully flat. Zhou Mi stared at the remnants of the cube on the floor. 

"Like hell it is." He rubbed his face, tried to breathe. "Are you coming home with me?" he asked. 

He was so angry, wanted to punch him, but he didn't want to leave Kyuhyun. Not now. He wanted to hold him until he'd tell him. He wanted him by his side, they'd get a ship, maybe not steal it this time.

And maybe Kyuhyun would never tell him. But would one day, without saying a word, plot the course that the cube had shown and take him there. 

Kyuhyun bit his lip. Zhou Mi wanted to grab him and shout at him. Come with me now because I can't ask again. It was hard to ask once. 

"I want to, but I need to..." Kyuhyun gestured helplessly at the room at large. Zhou Mi nodded curtly. 

It had all gone wrong. He needed to get out of here. Breathe again.

"Well, I hope this was fun for you," he managed to say. "Goodbye, Kyuhyun." 

He turned around and left and didn't look back.

 

xxx

 

It took Zhou Mi two and a half months to get back to Ko'Shi and reunite with Heechul and his crew. The Fish wasn't fast but it was all he had and he got some satisfaction from taking it away. 

(Even if it made him think of Kyuhyun. He told himself that at least, he'd been able to stop Kyuhyun from sabotaging their ship before they entered a damn wormhole and killing them both. 

But mostly he remembered the feel of Kyuhyun's hand in his.)

He eventually dumped it two planets away from the Exoplanet, where Fei and Henry had come to pick him up in a loaned ship.

He slept for a long time. 

 

xxx

 

"What do you think of her?" Heechul asked. Zhou Mi nodded approvingly, swiveling in the shiny new pilot's chair.

"She's beautiful! I'm sure she and I will get along just fine." He smiled sadly at the captain. "I'm sorry about the Anna, though."

"Yeah, the brat really went to town on her." Heechul hesitated and then sat down next to Zhou Mi. "Speaking of the brat, I owe you an apology as well. I should have warned you. 

But all I knew was that Kyuhyun was working for Siwon, or with him, whatever this order business is. Damn stupid. I figured they just wanted to make sure I didn't interfere, you know. I assumed that's why Kyuhyun hung around afterwards. I interfered with their business quite a bit, back in the day. Nothing they didn't deserve. mind you. I... was confident that you would be fine. Kyuhyun liked you, I caught on to that." 

That surprised Zhou Mi enough to make him laugh.

"He hated me at first," he said. He thought of Kyuhyun's flashing eyes and sarcasm back before they left together. Heechul scoffed.

"Pah. He never did. He might have been bratty enough to fool you, you poor innocent, but I saw what was going on right away." He smiled. "That goes for you too, by the way."

Zhou Mi blushed and looked away. Then he sighed.

"Oh well. It's all over now, either way." 

Heechul put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. 

"You'll be alright. I know you will." 

He supposed so. He felt mostly alright. Except for those moments, when he woke up and the Kyuhyun in his arms had been only a dream, or the times he forgot himself and looked up, expecting to see Kyuhyun's answering smile or feel his warmth beside him. Except for when he wanted to kiss him so much it hurt. Wanted to simply talk to him even more. 

 

xxx

 

It was a big universe. A part of him might always hope, might look for a familiar face in the crowd, but he wasn't expecting to see Kyuhyun again. 

But as it turned out, it was just another six months before he did.

He'd taken a trip to Mars Two in his new shuttle. The ship had docked at Aphrodite, not far from his home planet, for business. It had been his mother's birthday and Heechul had given him two days' leave. 

Zhou Mi was on the way back to the ship, when all of a sudden the lights flickered and his propulsion failed. He was floating dead in space. He cursed loudly. He got up from his seat to check the engine, hoping it was something simple, something even he would be able to fix. 

He felt someone behind him, the warmth of a body, just moments before a voice spoke in his ear, warm breath on his neck.

"I'm afraid I've done a really bad thing." 

Initially, he had tensed, but he relaxed again at that voice - it was as warm and low as he remembered, it always made him he want to stroke it - and sighed.

"You stole my damn ship, didn't you?" 

Kyuhyun laughed in his ear and rested his chin on Zhou Mi's shoulder. Zhou Mi turned his head to look at him.

"Do you think I've forgiven you?" 

"Wouldn't dream of it. I got you a present as an apology, though." Kyuhyun stepped back and Zhou Mi turned to look at him. The other looked more uncertain, more terrified than he'd expected.

"It'd better be good." He smiled faintly. "Where is it?" 

"It was too big to move," Kyuhyun said hesitantly. "So I thought, if you'd like, I'd... take you there?" 

Zhou Mi's heart was beating so loudly he felt like it was about to escape his chest and Kyuhyun must certainly be able to hear it, when Zhou Mi reached for him and held him tight.

"Can we get there in a shuttle?" he asked, voice muffled against Kyuhyun's skin.

"Dunno. Never tried. Let's find out." 

 

xxx

 

It took a long time. 

Zhou Mi didn't mind, he could fly and he had Kyuhyun by his side. They had second, third and thirtieth dates on unknown planets along the way. Zhou Mi would have missed his crew, but with how many messages he received, pestering him for this or that (he thought fondly), he never even got the chance. 

But at long last, they reached the coordinates Kyuhyun had programmed, and proved you could indeed get there in a shuttle, if you didn't mind taking the scenic route. 

Zhou Mi sat in silence, gazing at the screen in awe.

"I was a tiny bit afraid," he confessed when he heard Kyuhyun behind him, "that we'd fly into the heart of an alien society ready for war." Kyuhyun snorted at that. "But this is absolutely beautiful. It's the paradise the order wanted to protect, yes?"

"Yes," Kyuhyun answered softly. Zhou Mi sighed. 

"Why keep it a secret? It seems unfair." The planet on the screen was blue, covered in large amounts of water. But it wasn't an ocean planet. The rest of it was covered in the freshest, greenest green Zhou Mi had ever seen. He couldn't wait to see it up close, to reach out his hands and touch.

"It needs to heal. People destroyed it, before. Not the sudden explosion children are taught now but... slowly. Until most everyone fled. They never found anything like it anymore, though, so they spread across many planets." 

"How did you know where to find it?" Zhou Mi asked quietly. Kyuhyun shrugged.

"I was born here. Same as Donghae, Siwon. We're taught to protect it, keep it safe." 

"Before everything else?" Kyuhyun chewed on his bottom lip, gaze downwards.

"It's... important. Though I've started to think maybe other things are just as important, if not more so." He looked away. "Anyway," he mumbled, "Donghae's still in more trouble than I am."

Zhou Mi smiled and leaned in, kissing him softly.

"Thank you for taking me here."

Kyuhyun leaned his head on Zhou Mi's shoulder, linking their fingers together.

"Welcome to Earth."


End file.
